Link Aggregation Configuration

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Configuring Port Aggregation............................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Overview................................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Port Aggregation Configuration Task..................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Port Aggregation Configuration Task..................................................................................................................... 1
1.3.1 Configuring logical channel used to aggregation ...................................................................................... 1
1.3.2 Aggregation of Physical Port ..................................................................................................................... 2
1.3.3 Selecting Load Balance Method After Port Aggregation ........................................................................... 2
1.3.4 Monitoring the Concrete Conditions of Port Aggregation .......................................................................... 3

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 Link Aggregation Configuration

Chapter 1 Configuring Port Aggregation

1.1 Overview

Link aggregation, also called trunking, is an optional feature available on the

Ethernet switch and is used with Layer 2 Bridging. Link aggregation allows logical
merge of multiple ports in a single link. Because the full bandwidth of each
physical link is available, inefficient routing of traffic does not waste bandwidth. As
a result, the entire cluster is utilized more efficiently. Link aggregation offers higher
aggregate bandwidth to traffic-heavy servers and reroute capability in case of a
single port or cable failure.

Supported Features:

z Static aggregation control is supported

Bind a physical port to a logical port, regardless whether they can actually
bind to a logical port.
Aggregation control of LACP dynamic negotiation is supported
Only a physical port that passes the LACP protocol negotiation can bind to
a logical port. Other ports won’t bind to the logical port.
z Aggregation control of LACP dynamic negotiation is supported
When a physical port is configured to bind to a logical port, the physical port
with LACP negotiation can be bound to a logical port. Other ports cannot be
bound to the logical port.
z Flow balance of port aggregation is supported.
After port aggregation, the data flow of the aggregation port will be
distributed to each aggregated physical port.

1.2 Port Aggregation Configuration Task

z Configuring logical channel used for aggregation

z Aggregation of physical port

z Selecting load balance mode after port aggregation

z Monitoring the concrete condition of port aggregation

1.3 Port Aggregation Configuration Task

1.3.1 Configuring logical channel used to aggregation

You should establish a logical port before binding all the physical ports together.
The logical port is used to control the channel formed by these binding physical
ports.

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 Link Aggregation Configuration

Use the following command to configure the logical channel:

Command Description
interface port-aggregator id Configures aggregated logical channel.

1.3.2 Aggregation of Physical Port

To aggregate multiple physical ports into a logical channel, you can use static
aggregation or LACP protocol for negotiation.

In the case when the static aggregation is used, it is required that the link of the
physical port should be up, and the VLAN attribute of aggregation port and
physical port should be identical, and then this port will be aggregated to the
logical channel, regardless of whether the current port accords with the conditions
of port aggregation and whether the port that connects with the physical port
accords with the aggregation conditions.

Prerequisites for ports to be aggregated:

z The link of the port must be up and the port should be negotiated to
full-duplex mode.

z The speed of all physical ports should be same during aggregation process,
that is, if there is one physical port that has been aggregated successfully,
then the speed of the second physical port must be the same as the first
configured one. Also the vlan attributes of all physical ports must be identical
to the aggregated port.

LACP packets are exchanged between ports in these modes:

z Active—Places a port into an active negotiating state, in which the port initiates
negotiations with remote ports by sending LACP packets.

z Passive—Places a port into a passive negotiating state, in which the port responds to
LACP packets it receives but does not initiate LACP negotiation. In this mode, the port
channel group attaches the interface to the bundle.

If both ports use Passive method, then the aggregation fails. This is because both
sides will wait for the other side to launch aggregation negotiation process.

VALN attributes: PVID, Trunk attribute, vlan-allowed range and vlan-untagged

range.

Use the following command to perform aggregation on the physical ports:

Command Description
aggregator-group agg-id mode { lacp | Configures aggregation option of the physical
static } port.

1.3.3 Selecting Load Balance Method After Port Aggregation

You can select the load share method to ensure that all ports can share the data
traffic after the aggregation of all physical ports. The switch can provides up to six
load balance strategy:

z src-mac

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It is to share the data traffic according to the source MAC address, that is,
the message with same MAC address attributes is to get through a
physical port.
z dst-mac
It is to share the data traffic according to the destination MAC address, that
is, the message with same MAC address attributes is to get through a
physical port.
z both-mac
It is to share the data traffic according to source and destination MAC
addresses, that is, the message with same MAC address attributes is to get
through a physical port.
z src-ip
It is to share the data traffic according to the source IP address, that is, the
message with same IP address attributes is to get through a physical port.
z dst-ip
It is to share the data traffic according to the destination IP address, that is,
the message with same IP address attributes is to get through a physical
port.
z both-ip
It is to share the data traffic according to the destination and source IP
addresses, that is, the message with same IP address attributes is to get
through a physical port.
Use the following command to configure load balance method:

command purpose
aggregator-group load-balance Configures load balance method.

Note:

The command is unavailable at the switch that does not support load balance
methods or supports only one method. The switch using the command only
selects the load balance strategies supported by itself.

1.3.4 Monitoring the Concrete Conditions of Port Aggregation

Use the following command to monitor port aggregation state in EXEC mode:

Command Description
show aggregator-group Displays port aggregation state.

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