Cisco Systems IC-23 manual Fast EtherChannel Configuration Task List, IC-34

Configuring LAN Interfaces

Configuring Fast EtherChannel

links. Unicast, broadcast, and multicast traffic is distributed across the links providing higher performance and redundant parallel paths. In the event of a link failure, traffic is redirected to remaining links within the Fast EtherChannel without user intervention.

In this release of the Fast EtherChannel feature, IP traffic is distributed over the port-channel interface while traffic from other routing protocols is sent over a single link. Bridged traffic is distributed based on the Layer 3 information in the packet. If the Layer 3 information does not exist in the packet, the traffic is sent over the first link.

Fast EtherChannel supports all features currently supported on the Fast Ethernet interface. You must configure these features on the port-channel interface rather than on the individual Fast Ethernet interfaces. Fast EtherChannel connections are fully compatible with Cisco IOS virtual LAN (VLAN) and routing technologies. The Inter-Switch Link (ISL) VLAN trunking protocol can carry multiple VLANs across a Fast EtherChannel, and routers attached to Fast EtherChannel links can provide full multiprotocol routing with support for host standby using Host Standby Router Protocol (HSRP).

The port-channel (consisting of up to four Fast Ethernet interfaces) is treated as a single interface. Port-channel is used in the Cisco IOS software to maintain compatibility with existing commands on the Catalyst 5000 switch. You create the Fast EtherChannel by using the interface port-channelinterface configuration command. You can assign up to four Fast Ethernet interfaces to a port-channel by using the channel-groupinterface configuration command.

Fast EtherChannel also supports the following two features:

•Support for host standby using Host Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)

For more information about configuring HSRP, refer to the “Configuring IP Services” chapter in the Cisco IOS IP and IP Routing Configuration Guide.

•Support for Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) and distributed CEF (dCEF)

For more information about configuring CEF, refer to the “Cisco Express Forwarding” chapter in the Cisco IOS Switching Services Configuration Guide.

For information on how to configure Ethernet or Fast Ethernet, see the tasks listed in the “Configuring an Ethernet or Fast Ethernet Interface” section.

Fast EtherChannel Configuration Task List

Perform the tasks in the following sections to configure Fast EtherChannel. To configure Fast

EtherChannel, perform the following required steps:

1.Create a port-channel interface and assign an IP address.

2.Assign the Fast Ethernet interfaces (up to four) to the port-channel interface.

For information on other configuration tasks for the Fast EtherChannel, see the “Configuring an Ethernet or Fast Ethernet Interface” section.

For information on other commands that can be used by the Fast EtherChannel, refer to the other configuration guides in the Cisco IOS documentation set.

Cisco IOS Interface Configuration Guide

IC-34