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sawag
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

LACP on distribution switch

Hello,

We have 4 hosts with 2 uplinks on each host. We are using Distribution switch in our 6.5 environment. Kindly guide what is the correct procedure to enable LACP on Distribution switch. Should we enable on Distribution switch first and then ask the network team to enable on physical switch or what? We have 2 uplinks on each host, which uplink will we assign to LACP lag? If we assign the two uplinks which are assigned to our distribution switch from each host then what happen with vKernal port group? will we also migrate it to LACP lag or what?

Regards,

9 Replies
sawag
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Please guide me the procedure and if there is any step by step document available...

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Firstly, it's "distributed switch". Second, what is your use case for wanting to do LACP? If you're using a vDS, in most cases LACP just complicates things and you can do without it.

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sawag
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Actually it is our customer and they want to use LACP on physical layer and want us to do the same from VMware side otherwise all the environment will not be accessible in this case.

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hussainbte
Expert
Expert

the below link has a pretty god explanation for vSphere 6.

Create a Link Aggregation Group

However as mentioned above using LACP at switch and just setting both nics active with load based routing should be a decent enough configuration.. avoiding the LAGs

If you found my answers useful please consider marking them as Correct OR Helpful Regards, Hussain https://virtualcubes.wordpress.com/
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sawag
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for reply.

Can I have technical justification that we should not use LACP in case if we already have distribution switch? Or just guide me simple steps how to enable LACP on distribution switch. We have 4 host with 2 NICs (1g) on each. Both the nics are active on distribution switch.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

First of all, why do you want to do LACP in the first place? What is the requirement?

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hussainbte
Expert
Expert

below links have pretty good justifications.

vSphere Does Not Need LAG Bandaids - Wahl Network

Etherchannel and IP Hash or Load Based Teaming? | Long White Virtual Clouds

If you found my answers useful please consider marking them as Correct OR Helpful Regards, Hussain https://virtualcubes.wordpress.com/
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sawag
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for reply. We want to use LACP for;

1. Failover and load balancing from two physical switches

2. for Network high availability

Please advise.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Both of those do not require LACP. By using a vDS with a teaming policy of route based on physical NIC load, you can accomplish both things while maintaining simpler networking topology. Ensure all VLANs are available on both upstream switches, configure your vDS appropriately, and be done with it.