EtherChannels & Load-Balance

Posted by admin on 26 July 2011, 4:34 pm

An EtherChannel is comprised of physical, individual FastEthernet, GigabitEthernet, or Ten-GigabitEthernet (10Gbps) links that are bundled
together into a single logical link.

Each EtherChannel can consist of up to eight (8) ports. Physical links

in an EtherChannel must share similar characteristics, such as be defined in the same VLAN or have the same speed and duplex settings and
STP configurations. On a Layer 2 switch, EtherChannel is used to aggregate access ports or trunks. When several EtherChannel bundles exist
between two
switches, spanning tree might block one of the bundles to prevent redundant links. When spanning tree blocks one of the redundant links, it
blocks one EtherChannel, thus blocking all the ports belonging to this EtherChannel link. Where there is only one EtherChannel link, all
physical links in the EtherChannel are active because spanning tree sees only one (logical) link.
There are two link aggregation protocol options that can be used to automate the creation of an EtherChannel group: Port Aggregation
Protocol (PAgP) and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). PAgP is a Cisco proprietary protocol while LACP is part of the IEEE
802.3ad specification for creating a logical link from multiple physical links.

PAgP (Port Aggregation Protocol)

PAgP is a Cisco proprietary protocol that aids in the automatic creation of a EtherChannel. When an EtherChannel link is configured using
PAgP, PAgP packets are sent between EtherChannel–capable ports to negotiate the forming of a channel. These packets are sent to the
destination Multicast MAC address 01-00-0C-CC-CC-CC, which is also the same Multicast address that is used by CDP, UDLD, VTP, and
DTP. PAgP packets are sent every 30 seconds. PAgP checks for configuration consistency and manages link additions and failures between
two switches.

PAgP supports different port modes that determine whether an EtherChannel will be formed between two PAgP-capable switches. PAgP
working in the following modes;

 Auto – Auto mode is a PAgP mode that will negotiate with another PAgP port only if the port receives a PAgP packet. When this
mode is enabled, the port(s) will never initiate PAgP communications but instead will listen passively for any received PAgP
packets before creating an EtherChannel with the neighboring switch. This is the default mode.
 Desirable - Places an interface in an active negotiating state in which the interface
initiates negotiations with other interfaces by sending PAgP packets.
 On – Forces the interface to channel without PAgP. Interfaces configured in the
“on” mode do not exchange PAgP packets.
 Switches running PAgP are classified as either physical learners or
aggregate learners.
PAgP physical learners are switches that learn MAC addresses using the physical ports within the EtherChannel instead of via the logical
EtherChannel link. Physical learners forward traffic to addresses based on the physical port via which the address was learned. The switch
will send packets to the neighboring switch using the same port in the EtherChannel from which it learned the source address.
Aggregate learner learns addresses based on the aggregate or logical EtherChannel port. This allows the switch to transmit packets to the
source by using any of the interfaces in the EtherChannel. Aggregate learning is the default.
By default, PAgP is not able to detect whether a neighboring switch is a physical learner. Therefore, when configuring PAgP EtherChannels
on switches that support only physical learning, the learning method must be manually set to physical learning. It is important when running
in this mode, to set the load-distribution method to source-based distribution so that any given source MAC address is always sent on the
same physical port.

While PAgP allows for all links within the EtherChannel to be used to forward and receive user traffic, there are some restrictions, DTP and
CDP send and receive packets over all the physical interfaces in the EtherChannel, while PAgP sends and receives PAgP Protocol Data Units
only from interfaces that are up and have PAgP enabled for auto or desirable modes. When an EtherChannel bundle is configured as a trunk
port, the trunk sends and receives PAgP frames on the lowest numbered VLAN. STP always chooses the first operational port in an
EtherChannel bundle.

The following command can be used to validate the port that will be used by STP to send packets and receive packets;

Switch#show pagp neighbor

Flags: S – Device is sending Slow hello. C – Device is in Consistent state.
A – Device is in Auto mode. P – Device learns on physical port.
Channel group 4 neighbors
Partner Partner Partner Partner Group
Port Name Device ID Port Age Flags Cap.
Gi1/1/3 Switch.1 00c5.a003.0080 Gi0/1 4s SC 10001
Gi1/1/4 Switch.1 00c5.a003.0080 Gi0/2 3s SC 10001
STP will send packets only out of port Gi1/1/3 because it is the first operational interface. If that port fails, STP will send packets out
of Gi1/1/4. The default port used by PAgP can be viewed with the following command;
Switch#show etherchannel summary
Flags: D – down P – bundled in port-channel
I – stand-alone s – suspended
H – Hot-standby (LACP only)
R – Layer3 S – Layer2
U – in use N – not in use, no aggregation
f – failed to allocate aggregator
M – not in use, no aggregation due to minimum links not met
m – not in use, port not aggregated due to minimum links not met
u – unsuitable for bundling
d – default port
w – waiting to be aggregated
Number of channel-groups in use: 13
Number of aggregators: 13
Group Port-channel Protocol Ports
——+————-+———–+———————————————–
4 Po4(SU) PAgP Gi1/1/3(P) Gi1/1/4(P)
When configuring additional STP features such as Loop Guard on an EtherChannel, it is important to remember that if Loop Guard blocks
the first port, no BPDUs will be sent over the channel, even if other ports in the channel bundle are operational. This is because PAgP will
enforce uniform Loop Guard configuration on all of the ports that are part of the EtherChannel group.

LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol)

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is part of the IEEE 802.3ad specification for creating a logical link from multiple physical links.
Because LACP and PAgP are incompatible, both ends of the link need to run LACP in order to automate the formation of EtherChannel
groups. As is the case with PAgP, when configuring LACP EtherChannels, all LAN ports must be the same speed and must all be configured
as either Layer 2 or Layer 3 LAN ports. If a link within a port channel fails, traffic previously carried over the failed link is switched over to
the remaining links within the port channel.

LACP supports the automatic creation of port channels by exchanging LACP packets between ports. It learns the capabilities of port groups
dynamically and informs the other ports. Unlike PAgP, where ports are required to have the same speed and duplex settings, LACP mandates
that ports be only full-duplex, as half-duplex is not supported. Half-duplex ports in an LACP EtherChannel are placed into the suspended
state.

By default, all inbound Broadcast and Multicast packets on one link in a port channel are blocked from returning on any other link of the port
channel. LACP packets are sent to the IEEE 802.3 Slow Protocols Multicast group address 01-80-C2-00-00-02. LACP frames are encoded
with the EtherType value 0×8809.