Etherchannel x STP design

[muca]

Hi,

Is there any disadvantage running etherchannel? What I mean is, lets say you have your core switch as a 3750 stack, so you connect a 2960 on 3750-sw1 and 3750-sw2. Why would you choose to run STP and not etherchannel if with etherchannel you achieve both load balance and redundancy?

I know we can load balance using STP as well but what is a better option?

Thanks

[royalblues]

Configuring etherchannel does not mean that you disable STP. STP still runs over the etherchannel but treats it as a single logical link.

Etherchannel provides you redundancy as well as link aggregation for higher bandwidth connections between the switches.

If you are using the 3750's as a stack, then i would prefer to run cross stack etherchannels

Narayan

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"I know we can load balance using STP as well but what is a better option? "

Load balance using STP? What do you have in mind, per VLAN STP?

STP is really oriented for redundancy, but besides redundancy, channeling might provide additional bandwidth. Failure recovery likely quicker too.

The only disadvantage of channeling is when it's considered the same as a single link with simply x times the bandwidth.

If you use channels, and don't have any intentional loops, you avoid the need for STP but STP often is still a good idea to have active to handle accidental loops.

[edit]

Agree with Narayan on his comment on 3750 cross stack member Etherchannel.