Hello,

I assume that you would like to interconnect the 3560 core switch and the Alcatel switch using an Etherchannel. Is that so?

If yes then first, make sure that the Alcatel switch supports the LACP protocol. The LACP protocol is a supporting protocol to establish Etherchannel bundles and verify that the ports that are about to be bundled together are indeed eligible for bundling (for example, they all connect to the same neighboring device, they have the same operational characteristics and so on). You could also proceed without using any support protocol but I would not recommend that personally.

The way to create a LACP-controlled Etherchannel on a Cisco switch is to issue the following commands:

interface range fa0/1 - 4
 shutdown
 [ ... All config that should be the same like access/trunk etc. ... ]
 channel-group 1 mode active
 no shutdown

The 'active' keyword in the example makes sure that the Etherchannel will be created as LACP-controlled Etherchannel. After these commands are entered, a Port-channel1 interface will be created that represent the Etherchannel bundle. The 'shutdown' and 'no shutdown' commands are optional but in various occasions, it has proved to be a best practice when creating Etherchannel bundles.

Please come back with any questions you might have.

Best regards,

Peter