LACP bonded NICs enter independent state on NSX Bare Metal Edge after physical location migration

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Bare Metal Edge nodes may experience LACP negotiation failures and network degradation following a datacenter migration or physical relocation. This issue typically manifests as bonded network interfaces entering an "independent" or "down" state, causing physical switch ports to trigger a "suspended" state.

• LACP traffic may be impacted.
• Switch side review may show ports connected to the BME enrolled for LACP as suspended.
• NSX edge may show bonded nics as independent or down when checking with get bonds.

 

Environment

VMware NSX 

Cause

Physical cable routing between the switch port-channel interfaces and the Bare Metal Edge NICs was modified during the migration, leading to a mismatched topology. LACP protocol exchanges require exact point-to-point mapping between designated switch port-channel members and the specific fast-path interfaces (e.g., fp-eth1, fp-eth2) on the BME node.

Resolution

This is an environmental configuration issue and not a sign of an NSX issue. To resolve, re-align the configuration.

1. Audit Physical Connections: Perform a physical audit of the cabling between the top-of-rack (ToR) switch and the BME node to ensure each switch port connects to the correctly designated interface (fp-eth1, fp-eth2, fp-eth3, fp-eth4).
2. Correct Mismatched Cabling: Re-cable the physical connections to restore the required 1:1 mapping.
3. Verify Bond Health: Run the following command on the Edge CLI to verify the bond status: get bonds
4. Confirm Status: Once the physical topology is corrected, LACP negotiation should succeed, clearing the "independent" and "suspended" states. The bonds should return to an active, bundled status.

Additional Information

• For general LACP troubleshooting, refer to KB 409258.
• If the issue persists, ensure NIC firmware is up to date and consistent with hardware requirements.
• If you require further assistance, please visit Contact Broadcom Support.