What Is A Best Practice To Use Before Beginning An Etherchannel Implementation?

What is a best practice to use before beginning an EtherChannel implementation?

• Affected interfaces are assigned to VLAN 1.
• Affected interfaces are assigned to the management VLAN.
• Each affected interface is shut down.
• Enable the affected interface.
• Affected interfaces are assigned to the unused VLAN.

Answer: Before the beginning of the EtherChannel implementation, the affected interface needs to be shut down so that any kind of incomplete configuration will not create activity on the link.

What is EtherChannel?

EtherChannel is the combination port for the various physical ports links which are grouped into one link. It gives the speed links and the redundancy. The greatest links are 8 which combine to form the single logical link. EtherChannel helps the connection of multiple links to a single link which prevents the blockage of any less redundant link.

For example, in a topology, if the switches are connected with a PC and the links between the switches and the PC is considered as 1000mb/s, while in switches it is 100mb/s. Moreover, if the traffic which is sent is greater than the 100mb/s but we have the link of 100mb/s between the switches in this condition the switches restarted to drop. For this problem, the EtherChannel is used in which the high-speed links between switches are established and we can form more links with the same speed. EtherChannel help in building multiple links to a single logical link.

The standard for the formation of the EtherChannel is given in the following:

• Twin duplex.
• Twin speed.
• Twin VLAN configuration (the native and allowed VLAN has to be the same).
• The mode of the switch port has to be the same.

Protocols of the EtherChannel

For the formation of the EtherChannel, there are two protocols one is PAgP (port aggregation protocol) while the other one is LACP (link aggregation protocol)

• Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP):

The PAgP is the cisco protocol that forms the EtherChannel.

•  LACP (link aggregation control protocol):

It is the protocol for the IEEE standards which are described in the 802.3ad which form the EtherChannel it is quite alike to the PAgP protocol.

Modes in the protocols of EtherChannel:

The modes in the configuration of this interface are described below:

ON: the ethernet is part of the EtherChannel but the negation will not take at this place.

Desirable: the ethernet will attempt to transform the other side interface into an EtherChannel.

Auto: if the opposite site requests the interface then it will be the portion of the EtherChannel.

OFF: EtherChannel will not configure in this mode.