Improve the performance of its network with EtherChannel

Last updated: Nov 12, 2021

We will see here how to improve the performance of its network with the EtherChannel technology coupled with Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) negotiation protocol.

For information and according to Wikipedia : EtherChannel is a port link aggregation technology. We can use up to 8 active ports a total bandwidth of 800 Mbit/s, 8 Gbit/s or 80 Gbit/s is possible depending on port speed.

The LACP main features :

IEEE Ethernet standard
Failover occurs automatically
Dynamic configuration

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.

Cisco Etherchannel architecture with two switches

⚠️ 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 Etherchannel architecture with a Windows 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 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 :

Windows Server Manager console, Nic Teaming link

From NIC Teaming window, create a NewTeam :

Windows Server Manager, Create a New Nic Team

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 :

Windows Network Connections with a NicTeam network adapter

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

Note : I haven't tested it in the real world yet GNU/Linux Bonding architecture

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)
II Status: up
II Polling Interval (ms): 100
Up Delay (ms): 200
Down Delay (ms): 200
Peer Notification Delay (ms): 0

802.3ad info
LACP rate: fast
in 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

Computing

Music

Misc

Improve the performance of its network with EtherChannel

Configuration

EtherChannel on two Switches

Configure

Check

Misc

EtherChannel on a Windows Server

Cisco Switch

Windows Server

GUI

PowerShell

EtherChannel on a GNU/Linux Server

Cisco Switch

Debian Server

References