Lab 3-5 Configuring Etherchannel

Objective The purpose of this lab is to configure and observe Etherchannel. Scenario Four switches have just been installed. The distribution layer switches are Catalyst 3560s, and the access layer switches are Catalyst 2960s. There are redundant uplinks between the access layer and distribution layer. Usually, only one of these links could be used, or a bridging loop might occur. However, this utilizes only half of the available bandwidth. Etherchannel allows up to eight redundant links to be bundled together into one logical link. Step 1 Start by deleting vlan.dat, erasing the startup configuration, and reloading all your switches. After reloading the switches, give them hostnames. Configure ports f0/7 through f0/12 to be trunks. On the 3560s, you first need to set the trunk encapsulation to dot1q. On the 2960s, only dot1q is supported, so it does not need to be set, but the mode still needs to be changed to trunk. If you do not set the mode of the ports to trunk, the links do not form trunks and remain access ports (default mode on a 3560 or 2960 is dynamic auto; default mode on a 3550 or 2950 is dynamic desirable).
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DLS1#configure terminal Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. DLS1(config)#interface range f0/7 - 12 DLS1(config-if-range)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q DLS1(config-if-range)#switchport mode trunk

Step 2 The first Etherchannel we create for this lab is aggregating ports f0/11 and f0/12 between ALS1 and ALS2. First, make sure that you have a trunk link active for those two links with the show interfaces trunk command.
ALS1#show interfaces trunk Port Fa0/7 Fa0/8 Fa0/9 Fa0/10 Fa0/11 Fa0/12 Mode on on on on on on Encapsulation 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q Status trunking trunking trunking trunking trunking trunking Native vlan 1 1 1 1 1 1

<output ommitted>

On both switches, add ports 11 and 12 to port-channel 1 with the channel-group 1 mode desirable command, where mode desirable indicates that you want the switch to actively negotiate to form a PAgP link. PAgP is an Etherchannel protocol. ALS1(config)#interface range f0/11 - 12 ALS1(config-if-range)#channel-group 1 mode desirable Creating a port-channel interface Port-channel 1 Now, you can configure the logical interface to become a trunk by first entering the interface port-channel number command, and then the switchport mode trunk command. Do this configuration on both switches. ALS1(config)#interface port-channel 1 ALS1(config-if)#switchport mode trunk Verify that Etherchannel is working by issuing the show etherchannel summary command on both switches. This command displays the type of Etherchannel, the ports utilized, and port states.
ALS1#show Flags: D I H R U u w etherchannel summary - down P - in port-channel - stand-alone s - suspended - Hot-standby (LACP only) - Layer3 S - Layer2 - in use f - failed to allocate aggregator - unsuitable for bundling - waiting to be aggregated

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d - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 1 Number of aggregators: 1 Group Port-channel Protocol Ports ------+-------------+-----------+---------------------------------------1 Po1(SU) PAgP Fa0/11(P) Fa0/12(P) ALS2#show Flags: D I H R U u w d etherchannel summary - down P - in port-channel - stand-alone s - suspended - Hot-standby (LACP only) - Layer3 S - Layer2 - in use f - failed to allocate aggregator - unsuitable for bundling - waiting to be aggregated - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 1 Number of aggregators: 1 Group Port-channel Protocol Ports ------+-------------+-----------+---------------------------------------1 Po1(SU) PAgP Fa0/11(P) Fa0/12(P)

If the Etherchannel does not come up, you may want to try flapping the physical interfaces involved in the Etherchannel on both ends. This involves using the shut command followed by a no shut command a few seconds later on those interfaces. The commands show interfaces trunk and show spanning-tree also show the port-channel as one logical link.
ALS1#show interfaces trunk Port Fa0/7 Fa0/8 Fa0/9 Fa0/10 Po1 Mode on on on on on Encapsulation 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q 802.1q Status trunking trunking trunking trunking trunking Native vlan 1 1 1 1 1

<output ommitted> ALS1#show spanning-tree VLAN0001 Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee Root ID Priority 32769 Address 000a.b8a9.d680 Cost 19 Port 11 (FastEthernet0/9) Hello Time 2 sec Max Age 20 sec Bridge ID

Forward Delay 15 sec

Priority 32769 (priority 32768 sys-id-ext 1) Address 0019.0635.5780 Hello Time 2 sec Max Age 20 sec Forward Delay 15 sec Aging Time 300
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Interface ---------------Fa0/7 Fa0/8 Fa0/9 Fa0/10 Po1

Role ---Altn Altn Root Altn Desg

Sts --BLK BLK FWD BLK FWD

Cost --------19 19 19 19 12

Prio.Nbr -------128.9 128.10 128.11 128.12 128.72

Type ---------------------------P2p P2p P2p P2p P2p

Step 3 Using the commands you have learned above, configure the link between DLS1 and ALS1 on ports f0/7 and f0/8 to be a LACP Etherchannel. You must use a different port-channel number on ALS1 than 1, because you already used that in the previous step. To configure a port-channel to be LACP, use the interface-level command channel-group number mode active. Active mode indicates that the switch actively tries to negotiate that link to be LACP (as opposed to PAgP).
ALS1(config)#interface range f0/7 - 8 ALS1(config-if-range)#channel-group 2 mode active Creating a port-channel interface Port-channel 2 ALS1(config-if-range)#interface port-channel 2 ALS1(config-if)#switchport mode trunk

Apply a similar configuration on DLS1. Verify the configuration with the show etherchannel summary command.
ALS1#show Flags: D I H R U u w d etherchannel summary - down P - in port-channel - stand-alone s - suspended - Hot-standby (LACP only) - Layer3 S - Layer2 - in use f - failed to allocate aggregator - unsuitable for bundling - waiting to be aggregated - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 2 Number of aggregators: 2 Group Port-channel Protocol Ports ------+-------------+-----------+---------------------------------------1 Po1(SU) PAgP Fa0/11(P) Fa0/12(P) 2 Po2(SU) LACP Fa0/7(P) Fa0/8(P)

Step 4 In the previous steps, we configured Etherchannels as Layer 2 trunk connections between switches. We can also configure Etherchannels as Layer 3 (routed) connections on switches that can support it. Since DLS1 and DLS2 are both multilayer switches, they can support routed ports. Use the no switchport command on f0/11 and f0/12 to make them Layer 3 ports. Next, add them to the channel group with the channel-group number mode desirable command. Then, on the logical interface, type
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no switchport to make it a Layer 3 port. Add the IP address 10.0.0.1 for DLS1 and 10.0.0.2 for DLS2. Configure both with a /24 subnet mask.
DLS1(config)#interface range f0/11 - 12 DLS1(config-if-range)#no switchport DLS1(config-if-range)#channel-group 3 mode desirable Creating a port-channel interface Port-channel 3 DLS1(config-if-range)#interface port-channel 3 DLS1(config-if)#no switchport DLS1(config-if)#ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0

Verify that you have Layer 3 connectivity by attempting to ping the other side of the link:
DLS1#ping 10.0.0.2 Type escape sequence to abort. Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.0.0.2, timeout is 2 seconds: !!!!! Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/1 ms

If you look at the output of show etherchannel summary, you see that it lists the port channel as a routed port, not a switched port. RU in the parentheses next to the name means routed and up, as opposed to switched and up.
DLS1#show Flags: D I H R U u w d etherchannel summary - down P - in port-channel - stand-alone s - suspended - Hot-standby (LACP only) - Layer3 S - Layer2 - in use f - failed to allocate aggregator - unsuitable for bundling - waiting to be aggregated - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 2 Number of aggregators: 2 Group Port-channel Protocol Ports ------+-------------+-----------+---------------------------------------2 Po2(SU) LACP Fa0/7(P) Fa0/8(P) 3 Po3(RU) PAgP Fa0/11(P) Fa0/12(P)

Step 5 The switches can use different methods to load balance traffic going through a port channel. By default, they load balance using the source MAC address. You can view the current load-balancing configuration with the show etherchannel load-balance command:
DLS1#show etherchannel load-balance EtherChannel Load-Balancing Operational State (src-mac): Non-IP: Source MAC address IPv4: Source MAC address IPv6: Source IP address

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Other methods of load balancing are based on the destination MAC address, both source and destination MAC addresses, source IP address, destination IP address, and both source and destination IP addresses. For this scenario, we configure ALS1 to load balance by both source and destination MAC address using the global configuration command portchannel load-balance method, where the method is src-dst-mac.
ALS1(config)#port-channel load-balance src-dst-mac

Verify the configuration with the show etherchannel load-balance command:

ALS1#show etherchannel load-balance EtherChannel Load-Balancing Operational State (src-dst-mac): Non-IP: Source XOR Destination MAC address IPv4: Source XOR Destination MAC address IPv6: Source XOR Destination IP address

Challenge The topology still has redundant links that you can aggregate. Experiment with the other port-channel modes using the question mark on the interface-level command channel-group number mode ?. Look at the descriptions and implement some port channels in different manners. If you decide to use the on mode, you may want to take a look at the interface command channel-protocol ?. This mode statically sets the Etherchannel protocol without negotiation.

END OF LAB FINAL CONFIGS

DLS1#show running-config ! hostname DLS1 ! ! interface Port-channel2 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface Port-channel3 no switchport ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0 ! ! interface FastEthernet0/7 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk channel-group 2 mode active ! interface FastEthernet0/8 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk channel-group 2 mode active
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! interface FastEthernet0/9 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/10 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/11 no switchport no ip address channel-group 3 mode desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/12 no switchport no ip address channel-group 3 mode desirable ! ! end DLS2#show running-config ! hostname DLS2 ! ! ! interface Port-channel3 no switchport ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0 ! ! interface FastEthernet0/7 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/8 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/9 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/10 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/11 no switchport no ip address channel-group 3 mode desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/12 no switchport no ip address channel-group 3 mode desirable ! ! end ALS1#show running-config
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! hostname ALS1 ! ! port-channel load-balance src-dst-mac ! interface Port-channel1 switchport mode trunk ! interface Port-channel2 switchport mode trunk ! ! interface FastEthernet0/7 switchport mode trunk channel-group 2 mode active ! interface FastEthernet0/8 switchport mode trunk channel-group 2 mode active ! interface FastEthernet0/9 switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/10 switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/11 switchport mode trunk channel-group 1 mode desirable ! interface FastEthernet0/12 switchport mode trunk channel-group 1 mode desirable ! ! end ALS2#show running-config ! hostname ALS2 ! ! interface Port-channel1 switchport mode trunk ! ! interface FastEthernet0/7 switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/8 switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/9 switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/10 switchport mode trunk ! interface FastEthernet0/11 switchport mode trunk channel-group 1 mode desirable
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! interface FastEthernet0/12 switchport mode trunk channel-group 1 mode desirable ! ! end

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