Sample Configuration: Port Channel with ESX and Force10 Switch

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes the configuration of link aggregation (LAG) between ESX and Force10 physical network switches.

Environment

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Resolution

A sample configuration of link aggregation (LAG) between ESX and Force10 physical network switches is:

Force10(config)# interface port-channel 1
Force10(config)# no shutdown
Force10(conf-if-po-1)# description "<config_description>"
Force10(conf-if-po-1)# channel-member 3/15
Force10(conf-if-po-1)# channel-member 3/16
Force10(conf-if-po-1)# channel-member 4/15

Force10# show run
!
interface GigabitEthernet 3/15
no ip address
no shutdown
!
interface GigabitEthernet 3/16
no ip address
no shutdown
!
interface GigabitEthernet 4/15
no ip address
no shutdown
!
interface Port-channel 1
no ip address
switchport
channel-member GigabitEthernet 3/15
channel-member GigabitEthernet 3/16
channel-member GigabitEthernet 4/15
no shutdown
!

To verify the configuration, at the console of the Force10 switch, run:

show interfaces port-channel 1

The command displays output similar to:

Port-channel 1 is up, line protocol is up
Hardware address is xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Internet address is xx.xx.xx.xx/24
MTU 1554 bytes, IP MTU 1500 bytes
LineSpeed 2000 Mbit
Members in this channel: Gi 3/15 Gi 3/16 Gi 4/15
ARP type: ARPA, ARP timeout 04:00:00
Last clearing of "show interface" counters 00:00:00
Queueing strategy: fifo
44507301 packets input, 3563070343 bytes
Input 44506754 IP Packets, 0 Vlans 0 MPLS
41 64-byte pkts, 44502871 over 64-byte pkts, 249 over 127-byte pkts
407 over 255-byte pkts, 3127 over 511-byte pkts, 606 over 1023-byte pkts
Received 0 input symbol errors, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 CRC, 0 IP Checksum, 0 overrun, 0 discarded
1218120 packets output, 100745130 bytes, 0 underruns
Output 5428 Multicasts, 4 Broadcasts, 1212688 Unicasts
1216142 IP Packets, 0 Vlans, 0 MPLS
0 throttles, 0 discarded
Rate info (interval 299 sec):
Input 01.50Mbits/sec, 2433 packets/sec
Output 00.02Mbits/sec, 4 packets/sec
Time since last interface status change: 00:22:34

By default, this configuration operates without LACP mode (unsupported in ESX, except for Nexus 1000v). To complete the port channel configuration, the vSwitch must be configured with the route based on IP hash load balancing method.

For more information on the show interfaces port-channel command, see FTOS Command Line Interface Reference manual.

For information on creating a port channel (LAG) using FTOS, see How to use FTOS to Create a Port Channel (LAG).