Extreme Networks ExtremeWare Command Reference Manual page 197

• When using load sharing, you should always reference the master logical port of the load-sharing
group when configuring or viewing VLANs. VLANs configured to use other ports in the
load-sharing group will have those ports deleted from the VLAN when load sharing becomes
enabled.
There are two broad categories of load sharing supported on Extreme Network switches:
• Dynamic load sharing—A grouping of ports that will use IEEE 802.3ad load sharing to dynamically
determine if load sharing is possible, and will automatically configure load sharing when possible.
Uses Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), part of the IEEE 802.3ad standard, to allow the
switch to dynamically reconfigure the sharing groups. The group is only enabled when LACP
detects that the other side is also using LACP, and wants these ports to be in a group
• Static load sharing—A grouping of ports specifically configured to load share. The switch ports at
each end must be configured as part of a load-sharing group. Additionally, you can choose the
load-sharing algorithm used by the group. This feature is supported between Extreme Networks
switches only, but may be compatible with third-party trunking or link-aggregation algorithms.
Check with an Extreme Networks technical representative for more information.
Load-sharing algorithms allow you to select the distribution technique used by the load-sharing group
to determine the output port selection. Algorithm selection is not intended for use in predictive traffic
engineering. You can only choose the algorithm used in static load sharing. There is no option to choose
an algorithm when you use dynamic load sharing.
• Port-based—Uses the ingress port to determine which physical port in the load-sharing group is
used to forward traffic out of the switch.
• Address-based—Uses addressing information to determine which physical port in the load-sharing
group to use for forwarding traffic out of the switch. Addressing information is based on the packet
protocol, as follows:
— IP packets—Uses the source and destination MAC and IP addresses, and the TCP port number.
— IPX packets—Uses the source and destination MAC address, and IPX network identifiers.
— All other packets—Uses the source and destination MAC address.
• Round-robin—When the switch receives a stream of packets, it forwards one packet out of each
physical port in the load-sharing group using a round-robin scheme.
Using the round-robin algorithm, packet sequencing between clients is not guaranteed.
If you do not explicitly select an algorithm, the port-based scheme is used. However, the address-based
algorithm has a more even distribution and is the recommended choice.
Example
The following example defines a load-sharing group that contains ports 9 through 12, and uses the first
port in the group as the master logical port on a stand-alone switch:
enable sharing 9 grouping 9-12
The following example defines a load-sharing group on slot 3 that contains ports 9 through 12, and uses
the first port in the group as the master logical port 9 on a modular switch:
enable sharing 3:9 grouping 3:9-3:12
In this example, logical port 3:9 represents physical ports 3:9 through 3:12.
ExtremeWare Software 7.0.0 Command Reference Guide
enable sharing grouping
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