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Junos Basics – Aggregated Ethernet Interfaces

(LACP)
By Rich Bibby | July 29, 2013 5 Comments

In my previous Junos Basics post I covered configuring an 802.1Q Trunk between a Juniper
EX2200C and a Cisco 2960S. This post will expand upon the previous one by bundling two
interfaces together on each switch to form an aggregated link for the trunk.

There are a few proprietary standards for aggregating ethernet links, but Juniper uses the IEEE
802.3ad standard and Cisco can also be configured to use this. The 802.3ad standard is known as
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). LACP can be configured in either Active or Passive mode
– in Active mode a switch will always try and form an LACP link with the other side, and in Passive
mode a switch will form an LACP link if the other side is in Active mode.

On the Cisco side, the config steps are very simple:

◾ specify the interfaces to be aggregated

◾ set the protocol to LACP
◾ create a Channel Group and specify the LACP mode
◾ set the Port Channel interface as a trunk
◾ specify which VLAN’s are allowed over the trunk

Cisco2960S(config)#int range gi1/0/47­48

Cisco2960S(config­if­range)#channel­protocol lacp
Cisco2960S(config­if­range)#channel­group 1 mode passive
Cisco2960S(config)#interface po1
Cisco2960S(config­if)#switchport mode trunk
Cisco2960S(config­if)#switchport trunk allowed vlan 100,200

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Onto the Juniper side, the first step is to specify the number of aggregated links on the switch:

rich@EX2200C# set chassis aggregated­devices ethernet device­count 1

Next, we have to remove the logical unit configuration from the interfaces that are to be bundled,
as logical units are not allowed on aggregated links:

delete interfaces ge­0/1/1 unit 0

delete interfaces ge­0/1/0 unit 0

Next, set the interfaces to use LACP (802.3ad) and to be members of a logical aggregated ethernet
port (ports begin with ae):

set interfaces ge­0/1/0 ether­options 802.3ad ae0

set interfaces ge­0/1/1 ether­options 802.3ad ae0

Then we need to set the LACP mode for our new aggregated interface. We’ll make the Juniper side
Active, so that it initiates the transmissison of LACP packets:

set interfaces ae0 aggregated­ether­options lacp active

Finally, we need to set the aggregated link to be a trunk, and tell it which VLAN’s to trunk:

set interfaces ae0 unit 0 family ethernet­switching port­mode trunk

set interfaces ae0 unit 0 family ethernet­switching vlan members [SALES IT]

To verify our config, we’ll start on the Cisco side and check the Etherchannel summary:

Cisco2960S#show etherchannel summary

Flags: D ­ down P ­ bundled in port­channel
I ­ stand­alone s ­ suspended
H ­ Hot­standby (LACP only)

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R ­ Layer3 S ­ Layer2
U ­ in use f ­ failed to allocate aggregator

M ­ not in use, minimum links not met

u ­ unsuitable for bundling
w ­ waiting to be aggregated
d ­ default port

Number of channel­groups in use: 1

Number of aggregators: 1

Group Port­channel Protocol Ports

­­­­­­+­­­­­­­­­­­­­+­­­­­­­­­­­+­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
1 Po1(SU) LACP Gi1/0/47(P) Gi1/0/48(P)

Then we can confirm the trunk config:

Cisco2960S#show interfaces trunk

Port Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlan

Po1 on 802.1q trunking 1

Port Vlans allowed on trunk

Po1 100,200

Port Vlans allowed and active in management domain

Po1 100,200

Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not pruned

Po1 100,200

And on the Juniper side:

rich@EX2200C> show lacp interfaces

Aggregated interface: ae0
LACP state: Role Exp Def Dist Col Syn Aggr Timeout Activity
ge­0/1/0 Actor No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Fast Active
ge­0/1/0 Partner No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Slow Passive
ge­0/1/1 Actor No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Fast Active
ge­0/1/1 Partner No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Slow Passive
LACP protocol: Receive State Transmit State Mux State
ge­0/1/0 Current Slow periodic Collecting distributing
ge­0/1/1 Current Slow periodic Collecting distributing

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From the above output we can see that our individual interfaces are both Active, with the partner
end Passive. For a detailed explanation of the output see this article from Juniper, but suffice to
say the Mux State of Collecting and Distributing means the LACP protocol is working correctly.

We can also confirm the trunk is up and trunking for VLAN’s 100 and 200:

rich@EX2200C> show ethernet­switching interfaces

Interface State VLAN members Tag Tagging Blocking
ae0.0 up IT 200 tagged unblocked
SALES 100 tagged unblocked

I hope this has been a useful explanation.  In my next Junos Basics post I’ll cover first hop
redundancy using VRRP.

Thanks for reading.

Rich

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Category: How to guides Juniper Tags: juniper , junos

About Rich Bibby

I am UK based Network Engineer, working mainly with Cisco, Juniper and Arista gear in the enterprise
LAN, WAN and Data Centre space. Aside from route/switch/firewalling, I'm interested in open source
network monitoring and management tools, and exploring the possibilities that automation and
programmability bring to networking. Follow me on Twitter and GitHub
View all posts by Rich Bibby →

5 thoughts on “Junos Basics – Aggregated Ethernet Interfaces (LACP)”

angad very nicely explained…thanks..

August 25, 2014

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Rich Bibby Post author Thanks Angad

August 25, 2014

mike Completely spot on. Thanks so much for the walk-through.

March 14, 2016

Jack In Juniper EX4600, If one side interface configured ae but the other side
January 3, 2017
no ae configured. Will trunk still works?
Switch A
set interfaces ge-0/1/0 ether-options 802.3ad ae0
set interfaces ae0 unit 0 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk

Switch B
set interfaces ge-0/0/1 unit 0 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk

Rich Bibby Post author Good question! I’m not sure, I’d have to test it. maybe
January 3, 2017
someone else can confirm?

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