Hi Julie,

the config guide says try not to configure more then 6 etherchannel.  So it seems that you can configure more than 6 but you should not.  I am assuming this is due to harware limitation.

From the config guide:

EtherChannel Configuration Guidelines

If improperly configured, some EtherChannel ports are automatically disabled to avoid network loops and other problems. Follow these guidelines to avoid configuration problems:

•Do not try to configure more than 6 EtherChannels on the switch.

•Configure a PAgP EtherChannel with up to eight Ethernet ports of the same type.

•Configure a LACP EtherChannel with up to16 Ethernet ports of the same type. Up to eight ports can be active, and up to eight ports can be in standby mode.

Here the config guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2960/software/release/12.2_25_see/configuration/guide/swethchl.html#wp1275881

HTH

Reza

Hello,

Most likely the limitation is due to resource allocation. Every time you create an EtherChannel, the switch has to allocate resources (memory) to support the port grouping. Since most of the lower end switches are fixed configuration types, you will not have an option to increase the memory. Also, on these platforms, the I/O memory size is also fixed. A fragment of I/O memory will be used for EtherChannels. Hence, it is not advisable to have more than 6 EtherChannels on the hardware. The system could let you configure more than 6 EtherChannels at a time but if the system does not have enough memory to allocate to new EtherChannels, it will suspend some of the EtherChannels to allocate the memory to other processes (interface buffers).

Hope this helps.

Regards,

NT