Improve the performance of its network with EtherChannel

Configuration

• Switch model : Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches

EtherChannel on two Switches

Configure

Let's start with a simple configuration where we have two vlan (1 and 2 to stay simple) and a trunk interface between two switches. In order to improve the bandwidth between them, we will create a EtherChannel on the trunk interface composed of two Gigabit links.

⚠️ The interfaces GigabitEthernet1/0/25 and GigabitEthernet1/0/26 of both switches must have exactly the same configuration to work (trunk, allowed vlan etc…). ⚠️

• Configure switch01 :

switch01(config)# interface range GigabitEthernet1/0/25-26
switch01(config-if-range)# switchport mode trunk
switch01(config-if-range)# switchport trunk allowed none
switch01(config-if-range)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,2
switch01(config-if-range)# channel-protocol lacp
switch01(config-if-range)# channel-group 1 mode passive

• Configure switch02 :

switch02(config)# interface range GigabitEthernet1/0/25-26
switch02(config-if-range)# switchport mode trunk
switch01(config-if-range)# switchport trunk allowed none
switch02(config-if-range)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,2
switch02(config-if-range)# channel-protocol lacp
switch02(config-if-range)# channel-group 1 mode active

• We can now configure etherchannel interface like any other interface using the name Po 1 :

switch02(config)# interface port-channel 1

Check

• Verify the EtherChannel state :

switch01# 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, minimum links not met
        m - not in use, port not aggregated due to minimum links not met
        u - unsuitable for bundling
        w - waiting to be aggregated
        d - default port

        A - formed by Auto LAG


Number of channel-groups in use: 1
Number of aggregators:           1

Group  Port-channel  Protocol    Ports
------+-------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------
1      Po1(SU)         LACP      Gi1/0/25(P)    Gi1/0/26(P)

• Verify the load-balancing method currently in use :

switch01# show etherchannel load-balance
EtherChannel Load-Balancing Configuration:
        src-dst-ip

EtherChannel Load-Balancing Addresses Used Per-Protocol:
Non-IP: Source XOR Destination MAC address
  IPv4: Source XOR Destination IP address
  IPv6: Source XOR Destination IP address

• Verify how effectively a configured load-balancing method is performing :

switch01# show etherchannel port-channel

Misc

• Configure Load Balancing method :

switch01(config)# port-channel load-balance src-dst-port

EtherChannel on a Windows Server

EtherChannel is also possible with Windows Servers. We will see an example of a server with two network interfaces.

Cisco Switch

• Configure switch01 :

switch01(config)# interface range GigabitEthernet1/0/25-26
switch01(config-if)# switchport mode access
switch01(config-if)# switchport access vlan 2
switch01(config-if)# channel-protocol lacp
switch01(config-if)# channel-group 2 mode passive

• We can now configure etherchannel interface like any other interface using the name Po 2 :

switch01(config)# interface port-channel 2

Windows Server

⚠️ Be aware that creating the NIC Teaming interface will remove the configuration of the current networks cards. So don't do this operation from a remote access, otherwise you will lose access to the server. ⚠️

GUI

• From Server Manager, click on NIC Teaming link :

• From NIC Teaming window, create a NewTeam :

• Give a name, set LACP Teaming mode and Address Hash as Load balancing mode :

• Check that everything is fine :

• From Network Connections, set your Team Interface as any network interface :

PowerShell

• You can do the same with one PowerShell command line :

PS C:\ > New-NetLBFOTeam -LoadBalancingAlgorithm IPAddresses -TeamingMode Lacp -Name NewTeam -TeamMembers Ethernet0,Ethernet1 -Confirm:$false

EtherChannel on a GNU/Linux Server

Cisco Switch

• Configure switch01 :

switch01(config)# interface range GigabitEthernet1/0/25-26
switch01(config-if)# switchport mode access
switch01(config-if)# switchport access vlan 2
switch01(config-if)# channel-protocol lacp
switch01(config-if)# channel-group 2 mode active

• We can now configure etherchannel interface like any other interface using the name Po 2 :

switch01(config)# interface port-channel 2

Debian Server

• Install ifenslave package :

root@host:~# apt-get install ifenslave

• Edit /etc/network/interfaces file, and create bond0 interface. Here with the physical interfaces eth0 and eth1 :

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
    address 192.168.1.200
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    network 192.168.1.0
    gateway 192.168.1.254
    bond-slaves eth0 eth1
    #4 for LACP/802.3ad
    bond-mode 4
    #frequency of link status check in milliseconds
    bond-miimon 100
    bond-downdelay 200
    bond-updelay 200
    bond-lacp-rate fast
    #mac and ip
    bond-xmit-hash-policy layer2+3

• Reboot :

root@host:~# reboot

• Check bond0 interface is up :

root@host:~# ip address show dev bond0
4: bond0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,MASTER,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 72:17:b9:8d:1e:ad brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.200/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global bond0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::7017:b9ff:fe8d:1ead/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

• Get bond0 interface informations :

root@host:~# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver: v5.10.0-9-amd64

Bonding Mode: IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation
Transmit Hash Policy: layer2+3 (2)
MII Status: up
MII Polling Interval (ms): 100
Up Delay (ms): 200
Down Delay (ms): 200
Peer Notification Delay (ms): 0

802.3ad info
LACP rate: fast
Min links: 0
Aggregator selection policy (ad_select): stable
System priority: 65535
System MAC address: 72:17:b9:8d:1e:ad
Active Aggregator Info:
        Aggregator ID: 1
        Number of ports: 1
        Actor Key: 15
        Partner Key: 1
        Partner Mac Address: 00:00:00:00:00:00

root@host:~# cat /sys/class/net/bond0/bonding/mode
802.3ad 4

References

• https://social.technet.microsoft.com/
• https://wiki.debian.org/