Cisco Etherchannel Problems

Curiosityx · 24 May 2006 at 17:22

Hello, im currently working on a HP DL380 with dual built in gigabit network cards.
Both these interfaces are currently plugged into a Cisco 3500Xl switch running the following IOS "c3500XL-c3h2s-mz.120-5.4.WC.1.bin"

At first i had configured the switch to force the speed and duplex settings on both interfaces on the switch to 100/FD.

I then forced the speed and duplex on the nics to 100/FD, proceeding this i setup Transmit load balancing with fault tollerance.

The network team works fine without any issues whats so ever but upon testing this i decided to configure the team to use LACP, the server side config is fine but trying to get etherchannel working on the switch is driving me crazy, everytime i try to specify a new etherchannel group using the commands below i get the common input invalid message.

Code:

Cat3500#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Cat3500(config)#interface port-channel 1
                          ^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

Cat3500(config)#

I have tried erasing the startup-config and starting all over as well as setting each port on the switch back to defaults but no luck.

Any ideas what could be causing a problem? IOS?

Burbleflop · 24 May 2006 at 17:45

It should be port-channel1, not port-channel 1.

V-Spec · 24 May 2006 at 22:35

port-channel1 or port-channel 1 makes no difference, 3500XLs and older switches don't use port-channels to form an etherchannel, to create a port channel simply go to the candidate interfaces and enter "port group 1" on each interface and its done, verify with a "show port group" command.
3500XL's also don't support pagp or lacp protocols for forming a channel, they use their own frame distribution. I don't think this will work with your servers as frame distribution was designed for use between switches, but give it a go, you never know it might work!

Curiosityx · 25 May 2006 at 17:10

V-Spec said:
port-channel1 or port-channel 1 makes no difference, 3500XLs and older switches don't use port-channels to form an etherchannel, to create a port channel simply go to the candidate interfaces and enter "port group 1" on each interface and its done, verify with a "show port group" command.
3500XL's also don't support pagp or lacp protocols for forming a channel, they use their own frame distribution. I don't think this will work with your servers as frame distribution was designed for use between switches, but give it a go, you never know it might work!

Indeed i discovered the above, it does work but havent tested it fully, the HP teaming software mearly shows the adapters as both Tx/Rx with the same path cost, normally with Lacp enabled they would show as peers.

Thanks for your post though its cleared a few things up!

EDIT: Scrap that..Performance sucks, but one more thing learnt!