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?

Similar Messages

Link Aggregation, 10.4.8 Server, D-Link problems.

I am having problems with Link Aggregation on a Mac Pro running 10.4.8 OS X Server. I'm connecting to a D-Link DGS-3224TGR. The Switch has the LACP active on both ports of the trunk and the Ports are grouped, enabled and LACP. When both en0 & en1 are connected they show green in the network status but I have no real connectivity beyond the switch. I can connect to the web-GUI of the switch only. (Before you point fingers at the switch) I can unplug en1 and all begins to work well but if I reconnect en1 I get green lights on both, but still no connectivity beyond switch. If I unplug en0 and leave en1 in it still will not work. As long as only en0 is connected to port 1 OR port 2 of the trunk it works. Once en1 is plugged in or en1 alone, it does not work.
BTW i am setting a static ip for bond0.
One other note as I test en1 solo to the switch. There was a previous post concerning Link Aggregation and the person found no real fix but mentioned ports on the Mac going to 6.5.6.0 as the ip. He seemed to believe the problem was in the switch but I was setting up en1 with the servers ip and en0 shows this 6.5.6.0 address, hmm.
Anyone with info on any special settings needed on the d-link switch or any settings for other switchs related to this please post. I realy believe the problem to be OS X related but ...

Someone made a post that made me look at the netstat. It was suggested that that not only do the IP's on en0 & en1 need to be the same but also the MAC addresses. On my Mac Pro en0 & en1 retain different MAC address. Here's the read out.
<pre>osxserver:~ root# netstat -i
Name Mtu Network Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Coll
lo0 16384 <Link#1> 301253 0 301252 0 0
lo0 16384 localhost ::1 301253 - 301252 - -
lo0 16384 localhost fe80::1 301253 - 301252 - -
lo0 16384 127 localhost 301253 - 301252 - -
gif0* 1280 <Link#2> 0 0 0 0 0
stf0* 1280 <Link#3> 0 0 0 0 0
en0 1500 <Link#4> 00:17:f2:00:10:12 3117722 0 3747823 0 0
en1 1500 <Link#5> 00:17:f2:00:10:13 0 0 0 0 0
fw0* 494 <Link#6> 00:16:cb:ff:fe:6b:7b:5a 0 0 0 0 0
bond0 1500 <Link#7> 00:17:f2:00:10:12 3107388 0 3709075 0 0
bond0 1500 osxserver.l fe80::217:f2ff:fe 3107388 - 3709075 - -
bond0 1500 192.168.1 osxserver.qchro 3107388 - 3709075 - -
osxserver:~ root# netstat -r
Routing tables
Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default routerlan.qchron.n UGSc 45 11340 bond0
127 localhost UCS 0 0 lo0
localhost localhost UH 32 296823 lo0
169.254 link#7 UCS 0 0 bond0
192.168.1 link#7 UCS 17 0 bond0
ns2.mycompany.com 0.50.e4.9e.ef.29 UHLW 0 2977 bond0 1034
osxserver.mycompany.c localhost UHS 1 1776 lo0
rays.mycompany.com 0.3.93.a4.c2.e6 UHLW 1 7541 bond0 762
markw.mycompany.com 0.7.e9.db.eb.62 UHLW 0 7314 bond0 723
edit120.mycompany.com 0.d.93.62.c5.18 UHLW 2 25439 bond0 994
edit121.mycompany.com 0.14.51.0.92.36 UHLW 1 55664 bond0 304
edit122.mycompany.com 0.d.93.62.5e.f8 UHLW 5 19449 bond0 1044
edit123.mycompany.com 0.30.65.b8.5a.14 UHLW 1 164064 bond0 1200
edit125.mycompany.com 0.d.93.64.a2.c2 UHLW 3 8418 bond0 4
edit126.mycompany.com 0.11.24.7e.a2.9c UHLW 4 16093 bond0 1124
edit127.mycompany.com 0.d.93.61.6.38 UHLW 6 238746 bond0 854
art135.mycompany.com 0.a.95.be.2f.88 UHLW 3 382196 bond0 730
art136.mycompany.com 0.a.95.ae.96.10 UHLW 4 139562 bond0 672
art137.mycompany.com 0.a.95.ae.94.a UHLW 3 328845 bond0 866
art138.mycompany.com 0.a.95.ba.f4.4a UHLW 0 30 bond0 624
mikespowerbook.qch 0.3.93.a4.7a.1c UHLW 2 5320 bond0 506
192.168.1.223 0.a.95.bb.c.78 UHLW 0 142 bond0 546
routerlan.mycompany.c 0.d.bd.a1.89.98 UHLW 46 605 bond0 928
Internet6:
Destination Gateway Flags Netif Expire
localhost localhost UH lo0
localhost Uc lo0
localhost link#1 UHL lo0
link#7 UC bond0
osxserver.local 0.17.f2.0.10.12 UHL lo0
ff01:: localhost U lo0
ff02::%lo0 localhost UC lo0
ff02::%bond0 link#7 UC bond0
</pre>

Link aggregation and DNS

Brand new Xserve intel
link aggregation turn on two network cards works great.
DNS is running but when testing i dont' resolve his own adres
Link aggregation off DNS works
What goes wrong ?
thanks

You mean if the DNS server is running on the same machine you can no longer use it if bonding the interfaces?
I only know I saw a problem when I used 127.0.0.1 as the nameserver address in Network settings on the bonded interface. Users that always get the same "macaddress locked" static IP from the DHCP server, running in the same machine, got that as the nameserver IP (from the machine's Network setting) instead of from the ones in DHCP config.
(The DHCP server config also needed to be altered to serve on the bond0 interface).
And I think the info in /etc/named.conf "to only use 127.0.0.1" is, you should only allow for alterations of DNS server settings from that IP and maybe not that you should use it as the IP in Network settings.

Intel, Link Aggregation, 10.4.8 Server

Trying to narrow down a problem to see if it's just the Intel Ethernet Chipset or maybe just the Mac Pro. Some with a G5 PowerMac Xserv Mac OS X (10.4.8) posted a ifconfig that was correct in my open issue topic under Server/Networking. Was hoping to find an Intel user with Link Aggregation
active to any switch that could post an ifconfig -b bond0 results.
It is the MAC address setup on the Mac Pro via network setup. Here is my ifconfig.
<pre>osxserver:~ root# ifconfig -b bond0
bond0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::217:f2ff:fe00:1012%bond0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x7
inet 192.30.40.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.30.40.255
ether 00:17:f2:00:10:12
media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>) status: active
supported media: autoselect
bond key: 0x0001 interfaces: en0 (selected) en1 (unselected)
bond interface: en0 priority: 0x8000 state: 0xbd partner system: 0x0001,00:0f:3d:f8:12:8f key: 0x0013 port: 0x0013 priority: 0x0001 state: 0x37
bond interface: en1 priority: 0x8000 state: 0x05 partner system: 0x0001,00:0f:3d:f8:12:8f key: 0x0013 port: 0x0014 priority: 0x0001 state: 0x37</pre>
See my "ether" address it DOES NOT match the MAC addresses assigned to the Bonded en0 & en1 as yours does.
<pre>osxserver:~ root# networksetup -listBonds
interface name: bond0
user-defined-name: bond0
devices: en0, en1
}</pre>
Please does anyone know what CLI commands will fix this?

I'm having too problems with the Link Aggregation on an Intel Xserve with 10.4.8. In contrast to your ifconfig my output shows me that the bond seems to have lost its ethernet adress completely:
xserve1:~ isdadmin$ ifconfig -b bond0
bond0: flags=8842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 9000
ether 00:17:f2:93:7d:f8
media: autoselect status: inactive
supported media: autoselect
bond key: 0x0001 interfaces: en0 (unselected) en1 (unselected)
bond interface: en0 priority: 0x8000 state: 0x45 partner system: 0x0000,00:00:00:00:00:00 key: 0x0000 port: 0x0000 priority: 0x0000 state: 0x00
bond interface: en1 priority: 0x8000 state: 0x45 partner system: 0x0000,00:00:00:00:00:00 key: 0x0000 port: 0x0000 priority: 0x0000 state: 0x00
On the last two lines there are only "0". In the status panel in system preferences it states that the switch seems to not supporting 802.3ad though it does and is activated for the connected ports.
I hope that if it is a system fault it will be corrected in 10.4.9.
Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Using Link Aggregation and VLAN tagging with LDOMs

Hi,
Anyone know if Link aggregation combined with VLAN tagging works for LDOMs?
Any links or references would be appreciated.....
It would be very handy if each LDOM could have multiple interfaces on different VLANs....
Regards,
Daniel

I agree with bzptlx. While you can have vswitch plumbed without net-dev, and then route traffic inside the control domain, so that you can utilize aggregation, it adds complexity, and in some environments it's just impossible.
I would say that this is number 1 deficiency with LDOM's in general.

Etherchannel and link aggregation

Hi!
I'm a bit confused now, Sun Trunking supports Cisco Etherchannel, but link aggregation doesn't (if I understand correctly, a with the results of my quick tests).
Sun Trunking seems to be supporting a certain set of drivers and link aggregation another set.
Right now I've got a T2000 with 4 X e1000g and 4 X nxge, does anyone knows, if I can use these interfaces with Cisco Etherchannel, or do I absolutely need to use LACP with link aggregation??? The problem is that the network guys don't want us to use LACP (for whatever reason they have)...
Thank you very much.
Martin

I don't know any cisco term referring to "pure" etherchannel, so I don't know how to answer that. Both LACP and PAgP are link management protocols that cisco can use. I'm supposing that you're asking if the cards will work with PAgP management, but I'm not sure.
This FAQ:
http://www.sun.com/products/networking/ethernet/suntrunking/faq.xml
suggests that I've been incorrect about 802.3ad being a "new" thing and that SunTrunking 1.3 also uses it.
The SunTrunking 1.3 docs here:
http://docs.sun.com/source/817-3374-11/index.html
in chapter 1 (Overview) list six cards. I don't think yours are any of them, so SunTrunking is out.
Because LACP "only" manages the link configuration rather than driving the data, it seems to me that both the link-aggregation and cisco sides could work without LACP being present, but the management of the links might be wonky.
So without LACP, the links have to be configured manually, but I don't yet see anything that states that the two sides will not communicate if that is done.
Further, the 'dladm' man page says that one valid lacp mode on the Solaris is "off", so it must have some functionality without LACP. I would imagine that will required some sort of manual link configuration on the cisco side. (The solaris side is not going to do PAgP).
See also:
http://www.kabewm.com/2007/02/22/solaris-10-lacp-trunking-w-cisco-6509/
When the www.opensolaris.org boards come back up, I would recommend posting this question in the "networking" discussion group.
Darren

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).

X Serve and link aggregation - how to get more speed

Based on the thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1583184
is there any news with Snow Leopard Server and bonding 2 or 4 nics on an XServe to get a true load balancing? Can you recommend specific ethernet switches?
Thanks
Kostas

Why do you think Snow Leopard makes any difference?
Link Aggregation is an IEEE standard. Apple can't arbitrarily change their implementation of it.
As for switches, I've used it successfully on a variety of HP, Cisco and Foundry switches, although since it's a standard protocol almost any switch should work.

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

HP 1910-24g and link aggregation

Hi!
I need to know if two this switches are capable of link aggregation.
I have an esxi server, and i want to configure it for fault tollerance and load balance with nic teaming, connect one nic to every switch, so that if a switch fail the server continue working without interruption.
It's possible to do it or the switches support only link aggregation between ports of the same switch?
Thanks!!

Masterx81,
This is the consumer products forum.
You want the HP Enterprise Business Community for server questions.
I am guessing this is the specific area you require for esxi vmware.
Also here... HP1910 Port Aggregation over 2 or more switches?

Mac OS X Server v10.7 does not show the ethernet link aggregated interface I created in Server Hardware Network Dialogue window. Are link aggregated ethernet connections not supported in Lion Server?

Mac OS X Server v10.7 does not show the ethernet link aggregated interface i created. Does Lion server support ethernet link aggregated interfaces?

Thanks for responding Cold--
Hardware: Mac Pro 3.0 GHZ quad core xeon
I read the link but it still does not explain why the aggregated dual ethernet interface does not show up in the Network tab of the hardware section Lion Server. I was able to see it on the network and looks to be using a single static IP that I assigned. My concern was that is this supported and will it allow for failover and double performance of the single network interface.
Any thoughts?
Thanks again!

Fedora and SRW2024 link aggregation

Usually I am reluctant to criticize products, but this time I decided to get it out of my chest.
For people considering purchase of Linksys SRW2024 I would rather suggest to think twice before making this step.
Let’s cut to the chase... Recently I have built iSCSI storage with 2x 1Gbit NIC (Inter 1000PT) for my ESX server and the only missing ingredient was a dissent gigabit switch. Eventually I got SRW2024 as according to Linksys specs it supports VLANs and Link Aggregation etc. After configuring Fedora distro for link bonding I was unable to ping any of the hosts on the network (172.16.192.0/24). I checked the status of individual NICs and a configuration on the switch million of times, but I couldn’t find anything that was out of ordinary. In order to eliminate issues with NIC bonding on Fedora system I used my old DES3226 Layer 2 switch... and guess what? It worked just fine.
Next obvious step was to upgrade firmware from 1.2.1 to 1.2.2 (hardware version 1.2), but yet again... NO LUCK.
My question to Linksys Support or anyone who come across the same issue is – Are you aware of the issue and if so please did you find the solution as I have found number of users having similar problems!

Hi, the topic is quite old, but I am facing the same problem. We have three SRW2024 Switches. The LACP between the Switches is working, but I want to use the 802.3ad (EtherNet Link Aggregation) with two Xserves, but can´t get it working. The Linksys-Support is unable to help, because they ignore Apple-Products and name it an Apple-problem. Witch Firmware do You use on Your SRW2024? Many thanks in advance Regards svenc
Message Edited by svenc on 03-14-2008 01:16 AM

I have a problem with two PDF's when trying to open them through a link on a web page. The two PDF's open fine with Adobe on my own PC and on the server I have copied it to but when they are opened through a link on a web page (pointing to the server wher

I have a problem with two PDF's when trying to open them through a link on a web page. The two PDF's open fine with Adobe on my own PC and on the server I have copied it to but when they are opened through a link on a web page (pointing to the server where the PDFs open fine) I get an error 'There was an error processing a page. Invalid function resource' The other one just doesn't open at all. Can anyone help with this please?

Hello,
Are the pdf linked correctly in the website? Is this a public website? If yes, please post the link here.
~Deepak

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 aggregated between NAS and a switch: the Mac as a very slow access...

Hello,
in my Office we're working with Macs and PCs and all the data is on a NAS.
Here is our configuration:
NAS <-link1->Switch<-Link2->Macs or PC.
Macs are connected with AFP protocol (because SMB is very slow).
We want to use Link Aggregation between the NAS and the switch (with 802.3ad procotol) but when we do that all the Macs have a very slow access to the NAS. But all is OK with the PCs.
What can we do? Is there a problem with macOS X and link aggregation?
Thank you for your help.
Nicolas

Sorry, not sure what the question is exactly.
You must have an Xserve, or Ethernet cards capable of Jumbo Frames for one, I assume the Switch & NAS are capable?
Possible clues...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=ServerAdmin/10.4/en/c3ha3.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1715388&tstart=0
http://www.macnn.com/articles/04/06/21/link.aggregation.for.macs/
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30556/53/
http://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=8309

Link Aggregation and OS X Server

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for