Link aggregation query

Hi,
I've recently taken over a network which has got 4 Linksys switches - 3 * SRW2048 and 1 * SRW2024
One of the SRW2048 devices has 2 LAGs setup (of 4 ports each) connecting to the other 2 SRW2048s (both with a single LAG). So far, so good.
However, between the 'main' SRW2048 and the SRW2024 there are 4 ethernet cables, but no Link Aggregation is set up. Everything seems to be working OK, but I'm wondering if this is this an 'OK setup'? If so, where does it rate in performance terms between having just one connecting cable, and having all 4 with Link Aggregation?
Thanks for any help
Michael

Hi Michael,
It could be that spanning tree is blocking three of those active links.
Might i suggest you save the configurations to your PC, so they can be restored, if needed.
I think it's a great idea to add the four switch ports to a new Link Aggregation (LAG) group on each switch.
Make sure, on both switches that you click 'save settings'.
LAG provides link redundancy and load sharing between the switches, so i persoanally love the idea of using Link Aggregation (LAG)
regards Dave

Similar Messages

Dual wireless/ Load Balancing/ Link Aggregation

Hi all,
I've been reading up on this topic all day, with multiple Google and Apple searches, but haven't found the exact answer to this query. There was another post on this forum http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1660762 which was vaguely similar.
Basically I'm looking to experiment with combining 2 wireless connections, and therefore 2 seperate internet connections into one Mac.
I have seen suggestions of using a couple of wireless -> ethernet bridges, since Leopard supports Link Aggregation of ethernet devices. But the first question I have is: since I use a 3rd party wireless adaptor (Netgear wg111v3 USB dongle), it already shows up in Network Preferences as an Ethernet port. Leopard treats it as an actual ethernet device, hence is oblivious to the fact it is a wireless adaptor. Since Leopard thinks it's an ethernet port, could I use a second wireless dongle and then use Link Aggregation on them both?
Additionally, if that idea were to work, would it then be possible to connect each wireless adaptor to a seperate wireless network, or would they both have to connect to the same access point?
My DSL connection is roughly 512k on a good day, but I find this bandwidth to be choked when someone else at home is streaming videos etc. So in principle my idea was to have one connection using the regular DSL line as usual, plus connect the secondary wireless to my friend's wireless over the road when needed (and yes he's already agreed to my use since he rarely accesses the net). Therefore, giving a total theoretical bandwidth of 512k x2.
Since I aim for a load-balancing idea (spreading traffic over both connections), the main issue I can forsee is that this Mac will have problems routing traffic with both IPs since I read somewhere else that DNS problems might occur.It seems relatively easy to use Terminal to add a default route for specific destinations (e.g. all traffic to apple.com out of one interface, all traffic to yahoo.com out the other). However, I wondered if web traffic could be forwarded out one connection, whilst email traffic goes through the other. Alternatively, it would be great if web traffic could be "halved" and sent out both wireless connections simultaneously, though I don't think there's an easy way to do this (it would just be a nice feature if possible).
Your thoughts and advice on the matter would be much appreciated, and I'm going to continue experimenting with various ideas and see what I come up with.

Hi all,
I've been reading up on this topic all day, with multiple Google and Apple searches, but haven't found the exact answer to this query. There was another post on this forum http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1660762 which was vaguely similar.
Basically I'm looking to experiment with combining 2 wireless connections, and therefore 2 seperate internet connections into one Mac.
I have seen suggestions of using a couple of wireless -> ethernet bridges, since Leopard supports Link Aggregation of ethernet devices. But the first question I have is: since I use a 3rd party wireless adaptor (Netgear wg111v3 USB dongle), it already shows up in Network Preferences as an Ethernet port. Leopard treats it as an actual ethernet device, hence is oblivious to the fact it is a wireless adaptor. Since Leopard thinks it's an ethernet port, could I use a second wireless dongle and then use Link Aggregation on them both?
Additionally, if that idea were to work, would it then be possible to connect each wireless adaptor to a seperate wireless network, or would they both have to connect to the same access point?
My DSL connection is roughly 512k on a good day, but I find this bandwidth to be choked when someone else at home is streaming videos etc. So in principle my idea was to have one connection using the regular DSL line as usual, plus connect the secondary wireless to my friend's wireless over the road when needed (and yes he's already agreed to my use since he rarely accesses the net). Therefore, giving a total theoretical bandwidth of 512k x2.
Since I aim for a load-balancing idea (spreading traffic over both connections), the main issue I can forsee is that this Mac will have problems routing traffic with both IPs since I read somewhere else that DNS problems might occur.It seems relatively easy to use Terminal to add a default route for specific destinations (e.g. all traffic to apple.com out of one interface, all traffic to yahoo.com out the other). However, I wondered if web traffic could be forwarded out one connection, whilst email traffic goes through the other. Alternatively, it would be great if web traffic could be "halved" and sent out both wireless connections simultaneously, though I don't think there's an easy way to do this (it would just be a nice feature if possible).
Your thoughts and advice on the matter would be much appreciated, and I'm going to continue experimenting with various ideas and see what I come up with.

How can I set a right link Aggregations?

I have a Enterprise T5220 server, running Solaris 10 that I am using as a backup server. On this server, I have a Layer 4, LACP-enabled link aggregation set up using two of the server's Gigabit NICs (e1000g2 and e1000g3) and until recently I was getting up to and sometimes over 1.5 Gb/s as desired. However, something has happened recently to where I can now barely get over 1 Gb/s. As far as I know, no patches were applied to the server and no changes were made to the switch that it's connected to (Nortel Passport 8600 Series) and the total amount of backup data sent to the server has stayed fairly constant. I have tried setting up the aggregation multiple times and in multiple ways to no avail. (LACP enabled/disabled, different policies, etc.) I've also tried using different ports on the server and switch to rule out any faulty port problems. Our networking guys assure me that the aggregation is set up correctly on the switch side but I can get more details if needed.
In order to attempt to better troubleshoot the problem, I run one of several network speed tools (nttcp, nepim, & iperf) as the "server" on the T5220, and I set up a spare X2100 as a "client". Both the server and client are connected to the same switch. The first set of tests with all three tools yields roughly 600 Mb/s. This seems a bit low to me, I seem to remember getting 700+ Mb/s prior to this "issue". When I run a second set of tests from two separate "client" X2100 servers, coming in on two different Gig ports on the T5220, each port also does ~600 Mb/s. I have also tried using crossover cables and I only get maybe a 50-75 Mb/s increase. After Googling Solaris network optimizations, I found that if I double tcp_max_buf to 2097152, and set tcp_xmit_hiwat & tcp_recv_hiwat to 524288, it bumps up the speed of a single Gig port to ~920 Mb/s. That's more like it!
Unfortunately however, even with the TCP tweaks enabled, I still only get a little over 1 Gb/s through the two aggregated Gig ports. It seems as though the aggregation is only using one port, though MRTG graphs of the two switch ports do in fact show that they are both being utilized equally, essentially splitting the 1 Gb/s speed between
the two ports.
Problem with the server? switch? Aggregation software? All the above? At any rate, I seem to be missing something.. Any help regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated!
Regards,
sundy
Output of several commands on the T5220:
uname -a:
SunOS oitbus1 5.10 Generic_137111-07 sun4v sparc SUNW,SPARC-Enterprise-T5220
ifconfig -a (IP and broadcast hidden for security):
lo0: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
aggr1: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2
inet x.x.x.x netmask ffffff00 broadcast x.x.x.x
ether 0:14:4f:ec:bc:1e
dladm show-dev:
e1000g0 link: unknown speed: 0 Mbps duplex: half
e1000g1 link: unknown speed: 0 Mbps duplex: half
e1000g2 link: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full
e1000g3 link: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full
dladm show-link:
e1000g0 type: non-vlan mtu: 1500 device: e1000g0
e1000g1 type: non-vlan mtu: 1500 device: e1000g1
e1000g2 type: non-vlan mtu: 1500 device: e1000g2
e1000g3 type: non-vlan mtu: 1500 device: e1000g3
aggr1 type: non-vlan mtu: 1500 aggregation: key 1
dladm show-aggr:
key: 1 (0x0001) policy: L4 address: 0:14:4f:ec:bc:1e (auto) device address speed
duplex link state
e1000g2 0:14:4f:ec:bc:1e 1000 Mbps full up attached
e1000g3 1000 Mbps full up attached
dladm show-aggr -L:
key: 1 (0x0001) policy: L4 address: 0:14:4f:ec:bc:1e (auto) LACP mode: active LACP timer: short
device activity timeout aggregatable sync coll dist defaulted expired
e1000g2 active short yes yes yes yes no no
e1000g3 active short yes yes yes yes no no
dladm show-aggr -s:
key: 1 ipackets rbytes opackets obytes %ipkts %opkts
Total 464982722061215050501612388529872161440848661
e1000g2 30677028844072327428231142100939796617960694 66.0 59.5
e1000g3 15821243372049177622000967520476 64822888149 34.0 40.5

sundy.liu wrote:
Unfortunately however, even with the TCP tweaks enabled, I still only get a little over 1 Gb/s through the two aggregated Gig ports. It seems as though the aggregation is only using one port, though MRTG graphs of the two switch ports do in fact show that they are both being utilized equally, essentially splitting the 1 Gb/s speed between
the two ports.
Problem with the server? switch? Aggregation software? All the above? At any rate, I seem to be missing something.. Any help regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated!If you're only running a single stream, that's all you'll see. Teaming/aggregating doesn't make one stream go faster.
If you ran two streams simultaneously, then you should see a difference between a single 1G interface and an aggregate of two 1G interfaces.
Darren

How to set up Link Aggregation on Windows 7 ?

I am going to buy a new Switcher that is LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) supported so I can get a little bit better internet by combining my two ethernet ports on my MacPro (Mid 2012) where i have Windows 7 Ultimate installed as well as Mac OSx. On Mac OSx it is easy to set up Link Aggregation takes only 30 sec by going to Manage Virtual Interfaces and click round (for doing this you need a Link Aggregation supported router or switcher), but on Windows it seems to be a little bit harder after looking around for a while now. Is there anyone here who knows how to do it or know if its possible to set up Link Aggregation on Windows 7 ?
I'll be thankful for any help i can get

hehe I thought over that too
But since I dont got a windows forum account I thought of asking here fisrst

I urgently need to find out how to apply behaviour to images in my webpage. Created with dreamweaver and linked J Query stylesheets.

I have created a web page with a photo gallery of thumbnails that link to bigger images when you hover over them. When the bigger image opens there is an odd shape at the bottom right hand side , that when pressed, will take me back to the home page. But its not the correct sought of button or symbol. I dont know how to set this up properly. I have linked J.Query style sheets. But must have missed something. Can anyone help??? this is my first web page design. It is all done except for this.

Very sensible advice. However, the second sentence in the following statement is incorrect:
1. Make sure that you have updated all recordsets to the latest (CS4) version. Older ones created before the GetSQLValueString function was introduced are vulnerable.
The GetSQLValueString() function has always existed in Dreamweaver server behavior code. However, versions of this function prior to Dreamweaver 8.0.2 are vulnerable to SQL injection.
Unfortunately, you can't update older server behaviors simply by deleting the old version of the function and replacing it with one from DW 8.0.2 or later. Other small changes were made in the server behavior code for compatibility with the revised function. PHP server behaviors created prior to DW 8.0.2 need to be deleted and rebuilt. Yes, it's a pain, but far less of a pain than being hacked.

Mac Mini Server Link aggregation - Thunderbolt or USB 3 gigabit ethernet adaptors

I am setting up a late 2012 Mac Mini as a file server with Server 2.2. It has a Promise Pegasus R4 RAID and LaCie 4TB drives daisy chained via the Thunderbolt connection. 4 users on MacPro's will connect to the server to access these hard drives via gigabit ethernet.
I imagine the gigabit ethernet will be the bottleneck, so I'm now looking at link aggregation. Not a problem on the MacPro's but the Mac Mini will require an adaptor to get a second gigabit port. From reading this forum I understand the Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit adaptor will work, but I'm concerned that it will need to be fitted 3rd in line after the R4 and LaCie drives. The 10Gbps bandwidth Thunderbolt has, may cause another bottleneck with all three working off the same port?
An option would be to use one of the USB 3 ports with this adaptor http://www.ebuyer.com/412005-startec...edium=products
I believe it work with OSX, but I have no speed information or if OSX link aggregation will work using it.
Any thoughts on the above would be appreciated and recommendations on a suitable Network Switch with LACP support welcome.

At present Mountain Lion Server cannot use a LACP bond, in my experience only of course. http://www.small-tree.com/kb_results.asp?ID=59 describes LACP/Bonds do not show up in Server Admin GUI on Mountain Lion
anyone know how to do it? or the location and the name of the plist file to configure the network interface in ML server?
regards

How do make link between query and UDF

How do you link a query to your UDF after you created the query and the UDF?
Also do you have to set the UDF as type "general", and "link"?
Please take me thru step?

oh good - a discussion about whether to use "link" or "image" when having an image connected to a product!!!
Billy and Suda - We had fun with this one some time ago in a project collecting additional data and images for the customer's products on the market. As we were ramping up the project, we tried both ways of connecting an image to a product and there was a few drawbacks we found with using the UDF type of "General" and "Image":
1. The image was placed directly on the UDF portion on the Item Master - they were working in large TIFF (?) formats and the picture just looked horrible. The approving manager could not tell if the image should be approved for press or not. When he double-clicked on the image in the UDF portion it brought up another SAP window that wasn't quite crystal clear.
2. The image took up so much room on the UDF portion of the Item Master that the data entry personnel had to constantly scroll down to enter the other data points (color, size, branded promo, mixture, etc - there were about 12 fields). Talk about being ticked!
3. While using the "General" and "Link" it addressed those concerns BUT there was one extra enormous advantage with this General/Link method. When the image was brought up, it opened up the image automatically in a standard picture editor/manager program. If they liked what they saw, they continued foward with the approval of the image for press runs. If they did not like the image, they were able to manipulate the image at the moment and then follow through with approval (time saver for sure!).
I am sure it all boils down to what the customer requirements are, but some other clients I demoed this to wanted to switch immediately after seeing that! But definitely something to think about if you are planning on connecting an image to a product...
Oh and she really is correct, Billy - I have never heard of anyone linking a query to a "link" or "image" type...I don' t know how you would even do that as the "link" or "image" selection leads you directly into the attachment and/or storage path and location...
take care - Zal

Link aggregation

Hello,
I have a new Mac Pro specifically dedicated as a security camera server and am wondering if I should implement the use of two Ethernet ports and/or link aggregation. Here is the rest of the story...
My Mac Pro 3.06 GHz 12-core Intel Xeon computer corrdinates twelve network megapixel sercurity cameras. The network configuration now that the Mac Pro is simply linked into the only network that everything else in my home is via one main 10/100/1000 switch. This same network also hosts four other wired Macs, two HDMI-Cat6-HDMI channels, and a variety of other wired/wireless items that need Internet access. A brief test shows that my new Mac Pro does the job just fine under this plan. Isn't that what a network switch is supposed to do; juggle multiple data streams without them colliding or interfearing with one another? Regardless, I haven't tried to take any diagnostic readings or done any comparisons. I have further found little information from Apple on the use of two Ethernet ports.
So, any suggestions here? Maybe it would be good to have all of my cameras on one Network with the Mac Pro, since it is the one that coordinates all the video data. However, downstream access to all of that data via the main household Network and the Internet would be resticted. This is unless I can use both Networks at the same time. Like I said, I am finding little information to even start designing a Network with these two Enetrnet ports.
More microchips than sense,
Dr. Z.

Link Aggregation uses a slightly different protocol. It is different enough that the Mac will only commit both its Ethernet ports when the equipment you are connecting to explicitly supports Link Aggregation Protocol. (certain high-end Switches do this, but most consumer equipment does not.)
The Mac can use such an Aggregated link once established, but it does not do load-balancing unless there are multiple virtual connections. If you have only one data stream, it will be routed over one side of the aggregate link and will not benefit from having the other side present unless other connections to other places were using the same aggregate link..
So I think that if you are taking advantage of Gigabit Ethernet, you are doing fine. Link Aggregation is available, but it is really solving a problem you do not have in a way that does not benefit you.
Have you checked the actual speed in Network Utility to make sure you really are connecting at Gigabit speeds?
I some times set these up with manual speed so that they connect quickly at the speed I specify (with flow control) instead of auto-speed.

Cant get link aggregation working on srw2048

Hello
We are trying to setup link aggregation between 2 nodes in our cluster. They are 64 bit nodes running Opensuse 11.1 and are connected by Gigabit Ethernet. We have an srw2048 switch.
The problem is we are not able to see any performance improvement in network bandwidth after the configuration. We seem to have configured the nodes correctly: ifconfig shows something like this on both nodes, where eth4, eth5 are slaves to bond0 :
bond0     Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1E:68:78:F9:84            inet addr:192.168.1.198 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0           inet6 addr: fe80::21e:68ff:fe78:f984/64 Scope:Link           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MASTER MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1           RX packets:40443248 errors:442 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:442           TX packets:30955485 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0            RX bytes:31836352423 (30361.5 Mb) TX bytes:31997996320 (30515.6 Mb)
eth4      Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1E:68:78:F9:84            UP BROADCAST RUNNING SLAVE MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1           RX packets:6213 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:15477741 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000            RX bytes:1290977 (1.2 Mb) TX bytes:16000747443 (15259.5 Mb)           Interrupt:246 Base address:0xe000   eth5      Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1E:68:78:F9:84            UP BROADCAST RUNNING SLAVE MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1           RX packets:40437035 errors:442 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:442           TX packets:15477744 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000            RX bytes:31835061446 (30360.2 Mb) TX bytes:15997248877 (15256.1 Mb)           Interrupt:247 Base address:0x4000
Starting the network services shows
bond0          bond0     enslaved interface: eth5     bond0     enslaved interface: eth4     bond0     (DHCP) . . IP/Netmask: '192.168.1.198' / '255.255.255.0'
So it seems that the client side configuration is correct. The bond has been configured with the default mode balance-rr.
On the switch side, we have grouped the right ports to form LAG groups and have checked LACP on them. Running some trusted TCP benchmarks yields the same results as the original configuration without link aggregation.
I feel we are missing some configuration on the switch side.
Can anybody point out what we are doing wrong?
Thanks,
K**bleep**ij

If you think this has been a mis-configuration on the switch side, please try to reset the switch and then re-configure it again. You may also seek assistance with a Cisco/Linksys tech support so that they can guide you step by step at real time.

Link Aggregation: LGS318P Switch and LRT214 Router

The manual for my LGS318P is a little confusing (perhaps because I'm relatively new at more advanced features of networking).
I have an LRT214 router that I'm now routing all traffic through my LGS318P in the basement. From there it goes to multiple locations in the house, WAP's, etc. Currently, port 17 of the LGS318P connects to LAN1 of my LRT214 router. LAN2-4 are unused.
I would like to create a link aggregation for ports 17 and 18 to LAN1 and LAN2 of my router for both redundancy as well as possible speed improvement.
What is the best way to do this? Do I simply edit LAG1, place GE17 and GE18 as LAG port members, and select LACP to enable? Will that automatically set things up?
I don't want to do this then lose connectivity to my switch to reverse things.
Also, how many ports can be aggregated? Can I use 4 ports on the switch to the 4 LAN ports on the router?
What about the flow control option? Should that be disabled (default setting), enabled, or auto?
Thanks for all the help anyone can provide!

I also found something from the Linksys website for your consumption. I provides additional information about the rules of setting up LAC. The link is located at:
http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/ukp.aspx?vw=1&docid=986c6706bc7649b686850c5a26855a8f_15746.xml&pid=80&...
I hope it helps.

Link Aggregation ... almost there!

Hi all
After struggling with Link Aggregation on Mac OS X Server to Extreme X450 switches we are almost there. We've now managed to get a live working link where the Ethernet 1 and 2 arew green and the Bond0 shows both links as active, and finally the Bond0 interface picks up a DHCP address.
So that's great, but no Network connection which is weird because it got an IP address.
Do we have to route the traffic over one of the other interfaces or something?
Any suggestions at all?
Cheers
C

Camelot wrote:
The first, or at least - most obvious, problem is that you have IP addresses assigned to each of en0 and en1.
This should not be the case. Only the bond0 network should have an IP address assigned.
The other interfaces should not be configured at all. That's almost certainly the issue since your machine has three IP addresses in the same subnet - one on each of en0, en1 and bond0. It's no wonder things are confused
Thanks that now works a treat!
Was hoping you could help on another set of ports again being configured for Link Aggregation. We have tried to set it up in exactly the same way but again its not working. The ifconfig returns back the following:
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0 mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::219:e3ff:fee7:5706%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 169.254.102.66 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 169.254.255.255
ether 00:19:e3:e7:57:07
media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>) status: active
supported media: autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,flow-control> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex,flow-control> 1000baseT <full-duplex> 1000baseT <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::219:e3ff:fee7:5707%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
inet 169.254.102.66 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 169.254.255.255
ether 00:19:e3:e7:57:07
media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>) status: active
supported media: autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,flow-control> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex,flow-control> 1000baseT <full-duplex> 1000baseT <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>
fw0: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2030
lladdr 00:1b:63:ff:fe:6e:6c:8a
media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive
supported media: autoselect <full-duplex>
bond0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:19:e3:e7:57:07
media: autoselect status: inactive
supported media: autoselect
bond interfaces: en1 en0
When I compared this to the working Link Aggregation ifconfig output I noticed this one has the line "media: autoselect status: inactive" as appose to active. Could this be the cause and how do I rectify it?
Thanks

Best Switch to use for Link Aggregation

Looking to buy a new switch and was hoping that someone is already doing link aggregation on a current switch. Looking for 48 ports, I have a lot of Xserves.
What model have you had the best luck with? THX

Switches are like so many other things in life - you get what you pay for.
Sometimes you can pay less and get enough (i.e. it works well enough)
Sometimes you can pay less and not know what you're missing (you don't know what some of those advanced features are anyway, even though they could be useful)
Sometimes you pay more and get features you don't need/want/understand
Sometimes you find just the right option.
Start off by determining the importance to your business. If the switch blows out and all your servers go dark, how much will that cost you if it takes an hour to get it back up? 4 hours? a minute?
Look also at how much traffic you're pushing through your network. If you just need ports but aren't pushing many packets then a cheaper switch may suffice, but if you need every port to run at full line rate with no packet drops then you need something bigger.
Do you need the switch to just pass traffic, or do you want statistics (e.g. SNMP, RMON, etc.) so you can track which ports are busiest?
Then, of course, there's a budget. It could be $100. It could be $10,000. Your options are limited at $100, but $10K will cover a lot of options.
While you're doing this, consider expansion room. Are you likely to need more ports soon? Are 48 ports enough? Maybe a chassis-based switch that's expandable would be a better option.
At the high end you might consider anything from Cisco. Their Catalyst range of switches are the workhorses of many networks. They also come with a matching price tag.
Other options worth considering at the higher end would be Force 10's. Force 10 is known for their 10-gigabit network equipment, but their S Series switches are a powerful play.
Then there's Juniper's EX range. Juniper are known more for their routing platform (I guarantee most of your internet traffic goes through a Juniper router at some point), but their switches are a natural progression.
Coming down the line a little, look at Brocade's FastIron switches. Formerly Foundry Networks (before they got bought out), I" ve used (and continue to use) their switches in my network. If all those are above your price bracket then HP ProCurve switches are worth a look.
All of the above still may do more than you need, though. If all you really, really want is link aggregation and don't care about the rest then I'd probably go for a NetGear over the other lower-end players such as D-Link or LinkSys (even though LinkSys is now owned by Cisco).

Link Aggregation and OS X Server

Hello.
I'm moving my servers (3 x Intel Xserves running 10.5.6) to a new location with all new network hardware (wiring, switches, routers, etc.) and I'm now considering using link aggregation on the Xserves (the previous switches didn't support it while the new ones do) — but, since I'm working with servers which are already set up I'm concerned I might "break" services by moving to link aggregation. I've concerned that services which are bound to a specific network connection/port will fail when setting up link aggregation (for example, an Open Directory setup as OD Master).
Does anyone have any experience with this? I've read that with OD you have to revert back to an Standalone setup before setting up link aggregation, but I've only seen this mentioned once on other forums (and have never seen it confirmed anywhere).
Anyway, if anyone has any experience/advice/etc. it'd be much appreciated!
Regards,
Kristin.

To add to that question, do I just have to set the link aggregation in the Network interfaces preferences of the X-Serves or do we also have to set the Switches (through their administration interfaces) to be prepared for link-aggregation?

Link Aggregation dladm on T2000 with 2 e1000g. How can i change mtu size

Hello
I made a Link Aggregation on a T2000 with e1000g1 & e1000g2 successfully.
Now i want to raise up the mtu size to mtu 9000 for the aggregation.
I tried /etc/hostname.aggr
mtu 9000
unsuccessfully- MTU size still 1500
/kernel/drv/etc/e1000g.conf
setting Max Fram Size for 1 2 3 interface to 2(upto 8k)
also not successfully
MaxFrameSize=0,2,2,2;
# 0 is for normal ethernet frames.
# 1 is for upto 4k size frames.
# 2 is for upto 8k size frames.
# 3 is for upto 16k size frames.
# These are maximum frame limits, not the actual ethernet frame
# size. Your actual ethernet frame size would be determined by
# protocol stack configuration (please refer to ndd command man pages)
# For Jumbo Frame Support (9k ethernet packet)
# use 3 (upto 16k size frames)
Has someone an idea?
thanx for advice

Bug is described:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-1-6326664-1
Solution is
T-Patch 125020-01
Message was edited by:
sunibk

SG300-10mp Fibre Link aggregation

Hi,
I have 2 SG300-10mp switches which i am trying to create a link redundancy for over the two fibre ports.
On the web interface when i go into the LAG settings ports g9 and g10 which are the fibre ones don't show up.
How do i create the link aggregation between them? Or perhaps i'm doing the wrong thing... All i require is the two switches to function as normal, however should one fibre port become faulty or the cable to break, the over port just takes over straight away with no latency, or atleast very minimal.
Please help!

Hello Ashley,
I think I see where the confusion is here.
When you are looking at the LAG settings page, the 8 things you see listed represent the 8 possible LAGs that the switch can handle, the page actually looks exactly the same even with a 24 port switch. You are seeing the LAGs themselves, not your individual switchports.
If you go to LAG management, you should be able to select one of those 8 LAGs and click the edit button. The window that pops up should allow you to add both fiber ports to the LAG. I don't have one of these in front of me right now, but since the SFP slots on the 300's are combo ports they will probably be numbered as whatever the ethernet port combo'ed to the SFP slot is.
Simply add the ports you would like to the LAG, and check LACP if you are using it on the other switch (you cannot change this setting later, you would have to delete the LAG first).
This way you have the redundancy you are looking over with the added benefit of having more throughput available between those two switches, since the traffic will be load-balanced across the LAG.
A LAG will also failover much faster than two redundant links, since it won't have to go through the Spanning Tree process everytime a link state changes.
Like I said I don't have one of these in front of me right now, so if I messed something up let me know and I will try it in the lab tomorrow.
Let me know if you need any more information,
Christopher Ebert
Senior Network Support Engineer - Cisco Small Business Support Center
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Link aggregation query

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