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LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

 
L1nklight
Valued Contributor

LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

Working on the logistics of my P4500 G2 configuration I ran across this note in the best practices section of the user guide:

 

"Link Aggregation Dynamic Mode does not protect against switch failure, because both NIC's must be plugged into the same switch... For Link Aggregation Dynamic Mode, both NICs must be plugged into the same switch, and that switch must be LACP-capable..."

 

Does this apply to IRF configured switches? For example if I have a pair of switches setup with IRF and I plug one 10GbE NIC port into interface TenGigabitEthernet1/0/1 and plug the other NIC port into interface TenGigabitEthernet2/0/1 does this validate the "same switch" requirement?

 

Secondly, does this really matter? Am I unnecessarily over complicating my configuration by attempting to split the ports over two switches? Details of my configuration are as follows:

 

  • (2) A5820 - 24x Switches
  • (4) P4500 G2s, each with a 10GbE card.
  • All nodes have hardware RAID 5, most volumes will be configured with Network RAID 10. 

With this configuration is there any real benefit to attempting to stradle both switches using one 10GbE dual port NIC?

6 REPLIES 6
Bart_Heungens
Honored Contributor

Re: LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

Hi,

 

By default you cannot create a LACP trunk accross multiple switches... Except when U use so called stacked switches or IRF...

 

So yes if you have IRF configured you should be able to set up LACP accross your switches...

 

 

Kr,

Bart

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Steve Burkett
Valued Contributor

Re: LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

We're doing similar with a pair of Cisco 3750G's stacked.

 

Ryan Nelson_3
Occasional Advisor

Re: LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

3750GE's stacked here too. In initial testing, I could hard power one off and nothing skipped a beat. 

L1nklight
Valued Contributor

Re: LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

I have finally got my 4500s online and the 10GbE NICs installed. I was wondering if anyone had a configuration example of what needs to be turned on for LACP to work on an HP A5820 to enable/support 802.3 AD bond on a 4500. It appears like there are some Global Switch options that need to be enabled and some individual port options that need to be enabled. For example, I have one 4500 hooked up to port 3/0/17 and 4/0/17 on a pair of IRF configured 5820s.

Davy Priem
Regular Advisor

Re: LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

Config is pretty simple.

 

You should create a bridge aggregation:

interface Bridge-Aggregation 1

link-aggregation mode dynamic (this makes it a lacp)

 

Then on your interfaces do:

interface Ten-GigabitEthernet 3/0/17

port link-aggregation group 1

 

interface Ten-GigabitEthernet 4/0/17

port link-aggregation group 1

 

If you have a seperate vlan, config the brigde aggregation interface with the correct vlan

interface Bridge-Aggregation 1

port link-type access

port access vlan xxx

Northwoods
Frequent Advisor

Re: LACP Best Practices Clarification (P4500 G2 related)

This can also be done with distributed trunking on the higher-end Procurve switches as well....though if you are running other features beyond distributed trunking it's currently pretty buggy.