Link Aggregation Principle

Foreword

⚫ In the case of STP, the redundant link of the device is blocked and the link reliability is improved, but the
link bandwidth is wasted.
⚫ Link aggregation is the aggregation of multiple physical ports together to form a logical port. Packets
passing through the logical interface will be load shared among the member ports of the aggregated port,
and the load sharing is dependent on the administrator's configuration.

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 Objective

⚫ After taking this course, you will be able to:

➢ Understanding what link aggregation is

➢ Understanding LACP protocol principles

➢ Mastering the principle, configuration and basic maintenance of link aggregation

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 Contents

1. Link Aggregation Overview

2. Link aggregation configuration

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 Link Aggregation Background

⚫ In the following scenarios, in order to meet the data interaction between different servers, the core
switches must have higher bandwidth between them and need to have redundant backup of the links.
⚫ The number of physical links between core switches can usually be increased to improve the link
bandwidth between core switches.
⚫ With STP enabled, the redundant links between cores will be blocked, which can achieve redundant
backup of links, but fails to achieve the purpose of improving link bandwidth.

Providing redundant links

without increasing overall
bandwidth

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 Link Aggregation Overview

⚫ Link aggregation, also known as aggregate-port, is the physical bundling of multiple ports of a switch with the same
characteristics into a single logical port
⚫ Aggregation standard: IEEE 802.3ad
⚫ Aggregation Advantages:
➢ Extended Link Bandwidth
➢ Automatic link redundancy backup
➢ Multi-mode traffic balancing on aggregated links

Extended bandwidth,
link redundancy
backup

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 Link Aggregation Mode

⚫ Static Aggregation:
➢ No protocol negotiation is enabled on each member port in the aggregation group
➢ Its port state (join, leave) is entirely based on manual assignments that take effect directly
➢ It requires user commands to create and delete static link aggregation groups

⚫ Dynamic Aggregation:
➢ LACP protocol is enabled on each member port in the aggregation group and interacts with the peer device
➢ Its port state (join, leave) is automatically maintained through this protocol
➢ It requires user commands to create and delete static link aggregation groups
➢ Mode:
 Active: The port will initiate LACP message negotiation
 Passive: The port will only respond to incoming LACP packets

⚫ Both Layer 2 and Layer 3 ports of the switch support port aggregation, and both static and dynamic
aggregation modes are supported.

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 Traffic balancing

⚫ Traffic balancing: distributes traffic evenly across the AP's member links
⚫ Traffic balancing method: Destination MAC Traffic Assignment

➢ Source MAC address

➢ Destination MAC address 1000M
Aggregate Link
➢ Source IP address
Source MAC Traffic Assignment
➢ Destination IP address
➢ Source MAC + Destination MAC address
➢ Source IP + Destination IP address

⚫ The flow balancing method can be different for different devices

⚫ View the current traffic load mode of the device with the command show aggregatePort load-balance
Ruijie(config)#show aggregatePort load-balance
Load-balance : Source IP and Destination IP

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 Contents

1. Link Aggregation Overview

2. Link aggregation configuration

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 Static aggregation configuration command

⚫ Creating Ethernet AP port, aggregation group works in static aggregation mode by default (optional)
Ruijie(config)#interface aggregateport ap-number

⚫ Configuring Ethernet static AP member ports (mandatory)

Ruijie(config-if-range)# port-group ap-number

⚫ Configure Layer 3 aggregation interfaces (optional)

Ruijie(config-if-AggregatePort 1)#no switchport

⚫ Configuring traffic balancing mode (optional)

Ruijie(config)# aggregateport load-balance { dst-mac | src-mac | src-dst-mac | dst-ip | src-ip | src-

dst-ip }

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Static link aggregation basic configuration example

SW1 SW2

Gi 0/3 Gi0/1 Gi0/1 Gi 0/3

Gi 0/4 Gi 0/2 Gi 0/2 Gi 0/4

Ruijie(config)#interface range gigabitEthernet 0/1-2

Ruijie(config-if-range)#port-group 1 -- Configure the aggregated port ID to be 1, locally valid, in the range of 1-256
Ruijie(config-if-range)#interface aggregateport 1 ---Enter the aggregation port configuration mode
Ruijie(config-if-AggregatePort 1)#switchport mode trunk -- Configure the aggregation port to trunk mode
Ruijie(config-if-AggregatePort 1)#exit
Ruijie(config)#aggregateport load-balance src-dst-ip -- Configure the traffic load mode of the aggregation port as
source IP + destination IP

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 Dynamic aggregation configuration command

⚫ Creating Ethernet AP port, aggregation group works in static aggregation mode by default (optional)
Ruijie(config)#interface aggregateport ap-number

⚫ Configure Ethernet LACP member ports (mandatory)

Ruijie(config-if-range)# port-group key-number mode { active | passive }

⚫ Configure the system priority of LACP (optional)

Ruijie(config)# lacp system-priority system-priority

⚫ Configure the priority of LACP member ports (optional)

Ruijie(config-if-range)#lacp port-priority port-priority

⚫ Configure Layer 3 aggregation interfaces (optional)

Ruijie(config-if-AggregatePort 1)#no switchport

⚫ Configuring traffic balancing mode (optional)

Ruijie(config)# aggregateport load-balance { dst-mac | src-mac | src-dst-mac | dst-ip | src-ip | src-
dst-ip }

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Static link aggregation basic configuration example

SW1 SW2

Gi 0/3 Gi0/1 Gi0/1 Gi 0/3

Gi 0/4 Gi 0/2 Gi 0/2 Gi 0/4

Ruijie(config)#interface range gigabitEthernet 0/1-3

Ruijie(config-if-range)#port-group 1 mode active -- Configure the aggregation port ID as 1 and the aggregation mode as LACP
active mode
Ruijie(config-if-range)#interface aggregateport 1 ---Enter the aggregation port configuration mode
Ruijie(config-if-AggregatePort 1)#switchport mode trunk -- Configure the aggregation port to trunk mode
Ruijie(config-if-AggregatePort 1)#exit
Ruijie(config)#aggregateport load-balance src-dst-ip -- Configure the traffic load mode of the aggregation port as source IP +
destination IP

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 Link Aggregation Display & Maintenance

⚫ View the AP's traffic balancing algorithm configuration

SwitchA# show aggregatePort load-balance

Load-balance : Source MAC
SwitchB# show aggregatePort load-balance
Load-balance : Destination MAC

⚫ Check the correspondence of AP port and member port

SwitchA# show aggregateport summary
AggregatePort MaxPorts SwitchPort Mode Ports
-------------------- ------------ --------------- ------------ -----------------------------------
Ag3 8 Enabled ACCESS Gi1/1,Gi1/2

⚫ Configure LACP Link State

Ruijie# show lacp summary [ key-number ]

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 Notes on Configuring Link Aggregation

⚫ AP member ports must have the same rate and must be in full duplex; must belong to the same VLAN
(in Layer 2 aggregation); the transmission medium used should be the same (same optical port or same
electrical port)
⚫ By default, the Aggregate Port created is a Layer 2 AP port
➢ Layer 2 ports can only be added to Layer 2 AP ports
➢ Layer 3 ports can only be added to Layer 3 AP ports

⚫ Port security cannot be set for the AP port

⚫ When adding a port to a non-existent AP port, the AP port will be created automatically
⚫ When a port is added the AP port, the port’s attributes will be replaced by those of the AP port, and no
configuration can be performed on the port until the port exits the AP port
⚫ When a port is removed from an AP port, the port's properties are restored before it was added to the AP
port

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 Practice Questions

1. (Judgment Question) When dynamic LACP port aggregation is configured between two switches and the
aggregation mode at both ends is passive mode, the aggregation can be successful ()
A. True
B
B. False

2. (Multiple-Choice Question) Which of the following conditions may cause port aggregation to fail? ()
A. Two member ports are optical and electrical ports
B. Two member ports are Gigabit optical port and 10G optical port respectively
C. When during the Layer 2 aggregation, the two member ports belong to different VLANs
D. Both member ports are Gigabit full duplex electrical ports

ABC

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 Summary

⚫ Between core switches, the bandwidth between devices can be increased by port aggregation, while
providing redundant backup links
⚫ Port aggregation is divided into static and dynamic aggregation mode, each mode can complete the
aggregation of Layer 2 ports and Layer 3 ports

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