Cisco Systems DSC9148D8G48PK9 manual PortChannels Overview, PortChannel Flexibility

Chapter 6 Configuring PortChannels

Information About PortChannels

PortChannels Overview

PortChannels refer to the aggregation of multiple physical interfaces into one logical interface to provide higher aggregated bandwidth, load balancing, and link redundancy (See Figure 6-1). PortChannels can connect to interfaces across switching modules, so a failure of a switching module cannot bring down the PortChannel link.

Figure 6-1

Switch 1

PortChannel Flexibility

Switch 2

PortChannel A

PortChannel B

PortChannel C

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PortChannels on Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches allow flexibility in configuration. This illustrates three possible PortChannel configurations:

•PortChannel A aggregates two links on two interfaces on the same switching module at each end of a connection.

•PortChannel B also aggregates two links, but each link is connected to a different switching module. If the switching module goes down, traffic is not affected.

•PortChannel C aggregates three links. Two links are on the same switching module at each end, while one is connected to a different switching module on switch 2.

E PortChannels

An E PortChannel refers to the aggregation of multiple E ports into one logical interface to provide higher aggregated bandwidth, load balancing, and link redundancy. PortChannels can connect to interfaces across switching modules, so a failure of a switching module cannot bring down the PortChannel link.

A PortChannel has the following features and restrictions:

•Provides a point-to-point connection over ISL (E ports) or EISL (TE ports). Multiple links can be combined into a PortChannel.

•Increases the aggregate bandwidth on an ISL by distributing traffic among all functional links in the channel.

•Load balances across multiple links and maintains optimum bandwidth utilization. Load balancing is based on the source ID, destination ID, and exchange ID (OX ID).

	Cisco MDS 9000 Family NX-OS Interfaces Configuration Guide
6-2	OL-29284-01, Release 6.x