Link Aggregation on Two Physical Switches

[rgv75]

I saw this KB (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001938) that referenced support for link aggregation is available only on a single physical switch. The KB, however, only applies to ESX 3.0. I'm wondering if this was changed in ESX 3.5. We have two physical Cisco 6509 switches that are trunked. We can setup an Etherchannel between two separate ports to create an aggregated link, which then I will use IP Hash on the SC ports. Has anyone tried to do this on ESX 3.5? Thanks!

[depping]

or stacked switches. your switch is stacked so this will work fine! i've set this up numerous times with Cisco 3750, works like a charm! not sure why you would want to have this for your SC though. I can imagine that it's useful for your VM production portgroup, but load balancing your SC is useless cause there's hardly any traffic.

Duncan

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[rgv75]

I wish it's stacked. It's actually trunked using a 10GB link.

[depping · Accepted solution]

sorry I misread your initial post. just ditch the IP Hash loadbalancing. besure to setup STP(port fast) correctly and create a loadbalanced SC based on "Virtual Port ID". Works like a charm! there's really no need to use cross-stack etherchannels for your Service Console.

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

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[rgv75]

Hey thanks depping for the replies. you seem to know your stuff. i'm actually going to do the etherchannel redundancy for the vmkernel for the iSCSI or NFS traffic. i'm also going to do it for the SC because I can and might as well do it. 😃

Thanks again. Points awarded.