IEEE 802.3AD with IP HASH question with Virtual Connect Flex-10

[chuckk281]

Charlie has a customer question:

****************

                I have a question from a customer hoping someone can assist?

According to HP’s documentation, 802.3ad is not supported in the context

Here is the reference document from HP:

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-9642ENW.pdf

On Page 24 – read the table – “IP Hash” with 802.3ad is not supported on Flex-10.

802.3ad is “generically” supported for link aggregation across uplinks in the same module … not across modules. (I just triple-checked the cookbook on this too to make sure I am not missing anything)

2 issues are

a) the lack of VMWare support for IP hash,

b) the lack of ability to aggregate with 802.3ad across modules

*******************

Info from Chris:

******************

This is on the downlink ports only, not uplink ports.  To support 802.1ad/.3ad on the downlink ports would require a significant development effort to support multi-device LACP.

802.1ad/.3ad is fully supported on the uplinks, but only from the same physical Virtual Connect Ethernet module.

*************

And from Dave:

******************

On the uplink ports, we support H3C’s IRF(Intelligent Resilient Framework) and Cisco’s vPC(virtual Port Channel).

As Chris said the document is referring to the downlinks.

Virtual Connect is a layer two device, but it is not a switch in the technical terms. It is more a port aggregator.

As the document says, ‘Requires switch assisted load balancing, 802.3ad.”, VC is not a switch.

******************

Comments? Questions?