how are links in etherchannel numbered?

[sarahr202]

hi every body!

I understand that links in ether channel are are numbered from 0 through 7 . If they are 4 links in etherchannel, they would be numbered as L0,L1,L2,L3.

My question is how etherchannel decides which link will get what number?

For example if we have two switches connected to each other by ports f0/1,f0/2,f0/3 and f0/4 on both sides, which ports would be designated by etherhchannel as L0, L1 ,L2,L3?

Does etherchannel base its own numbering on port number?

thanks a lot!

[Edison Ortiz]

Sarah,

I don't follow you. Here is an output from a 3560 switch etherchannel. I don't see the "link number" you are mentioning:

sh ether de

Channel-group listing:

----------------------

Group: 23

----------

Group state = L2

Ports: 3 Maxports = 8

Port-channels: 1 Max Port-channels = 1

Protocol: -

Ports in the group:

-------------------

Port: Fa0/16

------------

Port state = Up Mstr In-Bndl

Channel group = 23 Mode = On/FEC Gcchange = -

Port-channel = Po23 GC = - Pseudo port-channel = Po23

Port index = 0 Load = 0x00 Protocol = -

Age of the port in the current state: 08d:20h:31m:30s

Port: Fa0/17

------------

Port state = Up Mstr In-Bndl

Channel group = 23 Mode = On/FEC Gcchange = -

Port-channel = Po23 GC = - Pseudo port-channel = Po23

Port index = 0 Load = 0x00 Protocol = -

Age of the port in the current state: 08d:20h:31m:41s

Port: Fa0/18

------------

Port state = Up Mstr In-Bndl

Channel group = 23 Mode = On/FEC Gcchange = -

Port-channel = Po23 GC = - Pseudo port-channel = Po23

Port index = 0 Load = 0x00 Protocol = -

Age of the port in the current state: 08d:20h:31m:41s

Port-channels in the group:

---------------------------

Port-channel: Po23

------------

Age of the Port-channel = 08d:20h:31m:55s

Logical slot/port = 2/23 Number of ports = 3

GC = 0x00000000 HotStandBy port = null

Port state = Port-channel Ag-Inuse

Protocol = -

Ports in the Port-channel:

Index Load Port EC state No of bits

------+------+------+------------------+-----------

0 00 Fa0/16 On/FEC 0

0 00 Fa0/17 On/FEC 0

0 00 Fa0/18 On/FEC 0

Time since last port bundled: 08d:20h:31m:49s Fa0/18

__

Edison.

[sarahr202]

Thanks for your reply Edison.

Let me quote David Hucaby's cisco press book ccnp bcsn, page# 165, 2nd last paragraph.

"For example an etherchannel consisting of two links bundled together requires a 1 -bit index. If the index is 0,link0 is selected, if the index is 1, link 1 is selected."

Based on the above excerpt , I believe

" links in the bundled are numbered 0 through 7"

But the output you send me does not show any such numbering. I am confused now!

[Edison Ortiz]

Could be output in the book be taken from a CatOS device?

__

Edison.

[sarahr202]

nope!The author makes it clear all the switches mentioned in the book are cisco ios switches as bcmsn only test cisco ios switches not cat os

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Sarah,

the bits needed are N where 2^N is the number or links if even.

if M the number of links is odd they use 2^N so that 2^N = 2*(M+1).

see the following:

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh ethercha 2 det

Group state = L3

Ports: 2 Maxports = 8

Port-channels: 1 Max Port-channels = 1

Protocol: -

Minimum Links: 0

Ports in the group:

-------------------

Port: Gi3/6

------------

Port state = Up Mstr In-Bndl

Channel group = 2 Mode = On Gcchange = -

Port-channel = Po2 GC = - Pseudo port-channel = Po2

Port index = 0 Load = 0x55 Protocol = -

Age of the port in the current state: 223d:15h:05m:27s

Port: Gi3/7

------------

Port state = Up Mstr In-Bndl

Channel group = 2 Mode = On Gcchange = -

Port-channel = Po2 GC = - Pseudo port-channel = Po2

Port index = 1 Load = 0xAA Protocol = -

Age of the port in the current state: 223d:15h:05m:27s

Port-channels in the group:

----------------------

Port-channel: Po2

------------

Age of the Port-channel = 223d:15h:06m:09s

Logical slot/port = 14/2 Number of ports = 2

GC = 0x00000000 HotStandBy port = null

Passive port list = Gi3/6 Gi3/7

Port state = Port-channel L3-Ag Ag-Inuse

Protocol = -

Ports in the Port-channel:

Index Load Port EC state No of bits

------+------+------+------------------+-----------

>>> 0 55 Gi3/6 On 4

>>> 1 AA Gi3/7 On 4

Time since last port bundled: 223d:15h:05m:28s Gi3/7

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#

and the load balancing results are:

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh int gi3/6 | inc packets input

19316740348 packets input, 7645373105779 bytes, 0 no buffer

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh int gi3/6 | inc packets output

56388153914 packets output, 31869177098092 bytes, 0 underruns

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh int gi3/7 | inc packets input

13559583829 packets input, 6899192766728 bytes, 0 no buffer

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh int gi3/7 | inc packets output

41856191802 packets output, 29354515790563 bytes, 0 underruns

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#

The book says that the member links are indexed from 1 to M as needed and the result of the load balancing algorithm (whatever is in use) associates a flow to a link outbound for transmission.

Edit:

this is a C6500 with sup720 3B

the links need to be indexed internally the show commands may or may reflect this depending on platform and IOS

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[sarahr202]

Thanks for your reply Giuseppe!

Towards the end of output,you sent ,we can see:

index load port Ecstate etc

My question is how etherchannel assigns the index to ports? For example in the output etherchannel assigns 0 to Gi3/6 and 1 to Gi3/7

i understand that how the bits from source mac or whatever load balancing method is configured, are used for hashing algorithm which in turn determine the link to be used.

For example if hashing algorithm yields 00 , then link 0 is used etc. The only thing , i want to know how etherchannel decides which port/link will get what i.e 0,1 in the bundle.

thanks alot!

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Sarah,

interfaces are already associated with several numbers/indexes:

ifindex: SNMP number for the port

STP port id: priority:port-number (ifindex I guess)

then also the bundle negotiation protocols if used can label/identify the links.

For lacp is stated that the two system-ids are compared and the winner decides what links are used starting from its lowest numbered link.

I don't know if PAGP has the same criteria or relays on STP choices/numbering or even ifindex.

in our case:

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh snmp mib ifmib ifind g3/6

GigabitEthernet3/6: Ifindex = 12

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh snmp mib ifmib ifind g3/7

GigabitEthernet3/7: Ifindex = 13

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh snmp mib ifmib ifind po1

Port-channel1: Ifindex = 140

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#

you can expect lower numbered ports to get a lower index but the reference can change depending on the configuration (manual, PAGP, LACP).

From a practical point of view this is not important.

RT-TO-CRN-SF-E-1#sh spanning-tree int po1

Vlan Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type

---------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------

VLAN0001 Root FWD 3 128.1665 P2p

VLAN0005 Desg FWD 3 128.1665 P2p

VLAN0006 Root FWD 3 128.1665 P2p

we see that STP port number differs from ifindex.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[sarahr202]

thanks for your reply! I understand that various protocols such as stp assign thier own port number to interfaces. Likewise Etherchannel also assigns number called index to ports in etherchannlel. The index could range from 0 to 7.

My question was how does etherchannel assig the index to links in etherchannel for example a four-link etherchannel number the links as L0,L1,L2'L3 ?

My hunch is etherchannel assigns these number to links in the order they are configured for etherchannel. For example if I configure the following ports for etherchannel in strictly same order they are listed:

f0/4,f0/3,f0/2,f0/1.

Then f0/4 would have index" 0",f0/3 have index" 1",f0/2 have the index "2", f0/1 have the index "3".

Am I correct?The good idea would be to implement the above on real switches which I unfortunately can't do, and let the results speak for themselves.

Thanks alot!

[Giuseppe Larosa · Accepted solution]

Hello Sarah,

I don't know what I see in your etherchannels is that lowered numbered ports get lower indexes but in our case we usually connect the links in a symmetric way between chassis:

3/6 --- 3/6

3/7 --- 3/7

using manual configuration between switches, LACP with multi NIC servers

So I cannot demonstrate if there is a bundle owner / designated switch that provides a reference but if you read about LACP you can see that it has this concept and then the links are used from the lowest index on the best device.

LACP allows you to assign priorities to the member links

lacp port-priority 33000

see

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst6500/ios/12.2SX/configuration/guide/channel.html#wp1020670

As a matter of fact, the switches assign indexes to the ports that are member links and this is important to know.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[sarahr202]

Thanks for your reply Giuseppe!

I understand that how lacp assigns role to end points(switches). Switch with lower system priority, decides the make-up of etherchannel.

The port priority is used to decide which port should participate etherchannel, default is 32768 which can be modified .

Lacp uses these( system priority, port priority)to decide:

1)Which switch becomes the " master" to decide the make-up of etherchannel

2)which port should participate in the formation of etherchannel.

My question was about index ,how are these indexes assigned to ports in etherchannel?

Do they get assigned on "first- come -first serve" basis?

If I configure the ports in this order f0/2,f0/4,f0/3, would it result :

f0/2 index=0

f0/4 index=1

f0/3 index =2

thanks a lot!

The link you forwarded, does not hint anything as to how index is assigned to port in etherchannel .

I read numerous cisco documents but still out of luck!

[sarahr202]

Thanks for your reply Edison!

As Giuseppe pointed out the show commands may or may not show the index depending upon platform/ios.

Actuallly, I was refering to "index" which can be seen at end of the output,you sent to me.

I should have worded my question better .

Thanks a lot!