Configuring Dynamic Link Aggregations (Lacp); Configuring Link Aggregations - HP procurve 8100fl series Management And Configuration Manual

Link Aggregation Configuration

Configuring Dynamic Link Aggregations (LACP)

7-4
Configuring Dynamic Link Aggregations
(LACP)
To configure and maintain a link aggregation group automatically, you must
use 802.3ad LACP, which is supported on the switch. This protocol can detect
the presence and capabilities of other aggregation capable devices automati­
cally. In other words, using LACP, you can specify which links in a system can
be aggregated.
The link aggregation is treated as the aggregator. The aggregator presents a
standard IEEE 802.3 service interface and communicates with the MAC client.
The aggregator binds to one or more ports, is responsible for distributing
frames from a MAC client to its attached ports, and for collecting received
frames from the ports and passing them to the MAC client transparently.
You can enable LACP on all Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and Tengigabit
Ethernet ports on the switch. LACP ports exchange LACP Protocol Data Units
(PDUs) with their peers and form one or more link aggregations. (This PDU
traffic comes at the expense of data traffic. For this reason, manual LAG may
be a better aggregation technology alternative to dynamic aggregation.)
After joining an aggregation, the port attaches to an appropriate aggregator.
The benefit of being able to aggregate links using a combination of these same
speed Ethernet ports on a single logical link is that it increases the options
available when you have one remaining gigabit port and a number of 100M bit/
sec ports available between switches. Network traffic is distributed across
ports dynamically, so administration of what data actually flows across which
port is managed within the aggregated link automatically. As with manual link
aggregation, traffic is balanced by assigning flows to the least-used ingress
ports in the aggregation.

Configuring Link Aggregations

To create and configure dynamic LAG, take the following steps:
1. Create the aggregation.
2. Specify the system.
3. Specify how flows are allocated on the LAG's ports.
4. Define the partner system LAG parameters.