Port Load sharing

[Paul11]

After i enable Lacp .. port is not sharing. Utilization is high on Link 1 only.
I want to use load balance on both links.
Please kindly see the below output and advice thanks.

* I try L2 static, L3_L4 and LACP. all the same ports are not load balance. *

enable sharing 1 grouping 1,4

enable sharing 1 grouping 1,4 L3_L4

enable sharing 1 grouping 1,4 algorithm address-based L3_L4 lacp


CoreSW # sh port 1,4 utilization bandwithPort Link Link Rx Peak Rx Tx Peak Tx
State Speed % bandwidth % bandwidth % bandwidth % bandwidth
================================================================================
Link_1> A 1000 82.06 94.94 48.23 55.72
Link_2> A 1000 0.25 0.30 1.34 1.57
================================================================================
> indicates Port Display Name truncated past 8 characters
Link State: A-Active, R-Ready, NP-Port Not Present, L-Loopback

CoreSW #sh sharing
Load Sharing Monitor
Config Current Agg Ld Share Ld Share Agg Link Link Up
Master Master Control Algorithm Group Mbr State Transitions
==============================================================================
1 1 LACP L3_L4 1 Y A 0
L3_L4 4 Y A 0
==============================================================================
Link State: A-Active, D-Disabled, R-Ready, NP-Port not present, L-Loopback
Load Sharing Algorithm: (L2) Layer 2 address based
(L3_L4) Layer 3 address and Layer 4 port based
Number of load sharing trunks: 1


Core2 # sh lacp lag 1
Lag Actor Actor Partner Partner Partner Agg Actor
Sys-Pri Key MAC Sys-Pri Key Count MAC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 0 0x03e9 00:04:96:34:b2:e1 0 0x03e9 2 00:04:96:34:b2:e0

Port list:

Member Port Rx Sel Mux Actor Partner
Port Priority State Logic State Flags Port
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 0 Current Selected Collect-Dist A-GSCD-- 1001
4 0 Current Selected Collect-Dist A-GSCD-- 1012
================================================================================
Actor Flags: A-Activity, T-Timeout, G-Aggregation, S-Synchronization
C-Collecting, D-Distributing, F-Defaulted, E-Expired

[Drew_C]

Load sharing is not the same as load balancing. EXOS does load sharing (link aggregation), but not load balancing. As Parthiban and Jarek have mentioned, you can adjust the hash algorithm to attempt to better spread the traffic across the links.

I'd like to try to understand your use case. Is there a problem with the traffic favoring one link over another, or is it just a preference to have it balanced? What type of traffic is between these two switches? Using the L3_L4 algorithm, you could see one link more saturated than the other if the IP address and protocol port is the same for a majority of the traffic. If you use the L2 algorithm, it will be based on the MAC address of the source and destination systems - if they are the same, only one link will be chosen.

[Drew_C]

Hi Paul,
Yes - that module is 2x 10G SFP+ ports. You will need to power off each switch to install it.

The configuration is easy to do, but will require looking at the existing VLAN config for the current LAG ports. I feel like that is outside the scope of the community here and would be best left to GTAC to help. If you're already planning on purchasing the modules and optics (be sure to get Extreme Networks Certified Optics!), go ahead and open a new case with GTAC to request help moving the configuration from the two LAG ports to the two new ones - that's the best way to prepare.

-Drew

[Paul11]

Thanks Drew,

It's very informative and a good solution for users.
Is it 2x 10G port ?
Since we are now in this stage.
Please kindly share the step on simple configuration.
We need the down time for this module to installation right.

[Drew_C]

Hi Paul,
You'll need to purchase a module and optics for installing into the slot on the back of each switch. For the X450a, I would get the XGM2-2sf. It looks like this:

Once installed, it's a simple configuration to move over to the new 10G link(s).

[Paul11]

Hi Drew,

Could you please explain more about upgrade the links to 10G via XGM module for X450a?

current model is 24-port 1000BASE-X SFP plus 4-port 10/100/1000BASE-T.
Anyway can we upgrade to 10G uplink?

BRdgs,
Paul