Isilon

Question

Hello

I had a query w.r.t Link Aggregation.

what I understood from my network colleague concept of LACP

if a host has 2 interfaces ports ( A & B ) connected to switch A on port 1 & port 2

step 1 : I do teaming for interface A & B, enable LACP on virtual teaming interface

step 2 : network person on Switch A will create a port channel having port 1 & port 2 and then enable LACP on that port channel.

with this its simple to understand the load balancing / port redundancy as its single switch.

Now my query is

if I connect host interface port A to Switch A & interface port B to Switch B.

then how do I enable LACP for the teaming interface ( A & B ) on both switches.

Extending this to Isilon

aggr-10 ( 2 x10g aggregate interface ), as each nodes has 2 x 10G interface then how does LACP work on these 2 x 10g interface which are connected to 2 different Switches.

Also LACP spans only on node its not at the across nodes ( usually we select aggr-10g of all nodes and then create LACP )

I didn't understand this concept can you please explain me this, did lot of search but didn't find satisfactory answer.

Thank You

Yousuff

johnsonka · Answer

Hello Yousuff ,

As for multiple switches and LACP, the switch must be capable of this and most modern switch technology is. For example, a vPC should be created with any multi-switch Cisco environment. Then configuring the port-channel on each switch to match will setup the link using some sort of aggregation to your liking. To configure a multi-switch environment with LACP, you will need to consult your vendor documentation on this. As vendors may vary in configuration.

Isilon does not concern itself with how many switches it is connected to. It will listen for LACPDU on the wire to establish an LACP connection. Isilon is LACP passive which means it will only speak when spoken to. With that in mind, the switch must be LACP Active to initiate the LACP negotiation between the two devices. Aggregation does not extend between nodes, each node is its own device with its own operating system. They simply work together to combine the one file system. In order to establish aggregation on a single node you must add the proper interface to the network pools. Example for 10g interface would be 10gige-agg-1. This will establish a bond of 10gige-1 and 10gige-2 and will translate that to BSD ("laggX") interfaces. You cannot have 10gige-1 and 10gige-2 in a network pool along with 10gige-agg-1; it has to be one or the other.

sluetze · Answer

if you only need it for the redundancy you can also use active / passive mode on the isilon Interfaces. this does (afaik) not require special configuration on networksite.

Yousuff · Answer

thanks Katie for the clarification.

can you please help on how the design should be for below scenario.

4 nodes ( 2 x aggr-10g )

Regular Cisco Switch A & B

If want to use LACP then how should my connection should be.

my assumption ( please correct me if I'm wrong )

node 1 : connect both 10G interface to Switch A ( ports 1 & 2 )

node 2 : connect both 10G interface to Switch A ( ports 3 & 4 )

node 3 : connect both 10G interface to Switch B ( port 1 & 2 )

node 4 : connect both 10G interface to Switch B ( ports 3 & 4 )

On Switch A

create port channel 1 for 1 & 2 ports and enable LACP

create port channel 2 for 3 & 4 ports and enable LACP

On Switch B

create port channel 1 for 1 & 2 ports and enable LACP

create port channel 2 for 3 & 4 and enable LACP

On Isilon

select Aggregation Mode : LACP

Interfaces :
10gige-aggr-1 node1

10gige-aggr-1 node2

10gige-aggr-1 node3

10gige-aggr-1 node4

Is this the correct way, incase of a better approach please let me know..

thank you

Yousuff K.

crklosterman · Answer

Yousuff,

You're close to correct, but ideally if the switches in question are Cisco and are setup as VPC peers, or if they are Arista or Brocade and can use mLagg, the you'd span a port-channel across 2 switches so that you get redundancy across physical switches.

So to your example it may look more like this:

On Switches Configured as Virtual Port-Channel 1 (mode active)

node 1: 10gige-1 to Switch A port 1

node 1: 10gige-2 to Switch B port 1

in the nodepool, you would add 1:10gige-agg-1

On Switches Configured as Virtual Port-Channel 2 (mode active)

node 2: 10gige-1 to Switch A port 2

node 2: 10gige-2 to Switch B port 2

in the nodepool, you would add 2:10gige-agg-1

On Switches Configured as Virtual Port-Channel 3 (mode active)

node 3: 10gige-1 to Switch A port 3

node 3: 10gige-2 to Switch B port 3

in the nodepool, you would add 3:10gige-agg-1

Ultimately this falls upon the network team and the network hardware and what it can support, from the Isilon side a virtual port channel or an mLagg looks the same as a single switch port-channel, and that's what's key.

Hope this helps,

Chris Klosterman

Advisory Solution Architect

EMC Enablement Team

chris.klosterman@emc.com

twitter: Croaking

Yousuff · Answer

Thank you very much Chris for the kind explanation. After your explanation I'm lot clear on the LACP mode of aggregation on the Isilon. Thank you very much Yousuff K.

padukone · Answer

Hi Chris,

So we are having issue setting up the 10gig network with LACP. SInce we plan to use these ports for replication as well, we are using vlan taging. I came across this attahced KB, which says for the LACP to function propely, disable the Control Plane Policing (CoPP) on the cisco nexus switch.

"Cisco Nexus switches can interfere with interfaces being used in LACP mode, resulting in interfaces not powering up

when they should. To keep the cluster's interfaces online and functioning properly with LACP, disable Control Plane

Policing (CoPP) on the Cisco Nexus switch."

Our network team is not willing to do that. Did you guys have to disable CoPP ?

Thanks

dynamox · Answer

my network admins did not have to do any of that, they setup vPC port-channel, tagged multiple VLANs and off i went.

crklosterman · Answer

So this isn't meant to be a how-to become a CCNA post: but here are the relevant parts of a Nexus 5672's running config that I manage in my lab. I am using LACP and 802.1Q to 6 X200 Isilon nodes. I haven't messed with CoPP, and it works fine, though I only have a single Nexus switch, so no VPC here.

Here's a Cisco Howto on this particular subject:

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide, Release 5.1(3)N1(1) - Configuring Control Plane Policing [C…

And now my config (irrelevant parts redacted):

!Command: show running-config

!Time: Mon Jan 4 17:11:54 2016

version 7.0(7)N1(1)

hostname ninja5672

no feature telnet

feature scp-server

feature interface-vlan

feature lacp

feature lldp

banner motd #Nexus 6000 Switch

#

ssh key rsa 2048

no system default switchport

logging event link-status default

service unsupported-transceiver

policy-map type network-qos jumbo

class type network-qos class-default

mtu 9216

system qos

service-policy type network-qos jumbo

ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.111.148.1

vlan 1

vlan 148, 201, 204-207, 900-928

vrf context management

interface Vlan1

interface Vlan148

no shutdown

ip address 10.111.148.2/23

interface port-channel8

description lagg-SX200-301128-0129

switchport

switchport mode trunk

interface port-channel9

description lagg-SX200-301128-0126

switchport

switchport mode trunk

interface port-channel10

description lagg-SX200-301128-0145

switchport

switchport mode trunk

interface port-channel11

description lagg-SX200-301128-0126

switchport

switchport mode trunk

interface port-channel12

description lagg-SX200-301125-0379

switchport

switchport mode trunk

interface port-channel13

description lagg-SX200-301128-0139

switchport

switchport mode trunk

interface Ethernet1/9

description SX200-301128-0129:10gige-2

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 8 mode active

interface Ethernet1/10

description SX200-301128-0129:10gige-1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 8 mode active

interface Ethernet1/11

description SX200-301128-0145:10gige-2

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 9 mode active

interface Ethernet1/12

description SX200-301128-0145:10gige-1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 9 mode active

interface Ethernet1/13

description SX200-301128-0126:10gige-2

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/14

description SX200-301128-0126:10gige-1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/15

description SX200-301118-0104:10gige-2

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 11 mode active

interface Ethernet1/16

description SX200-301118-0104:10gige-1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 11 mode active

interface Ethernet1/17

description SX200-301125-0379:10gige-1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 12 mode active

interface Ethernet1/18

description SX200-301125-0379:10gige-2

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 12 mode active

interface Ethernet1/19

description SX200-301128-0139:10gige-2

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 13 mode active

interface Ethernet1/20

description SX200-301128-0139:10gige-1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

channel-group 13 mode active

clock timezone CST 1 0

cli alias name wr copy running-config startup-config

line console

line vty

boot kickstart bootflash:/n6000-uk9-kickstart.7.0.7.N1.1.bin

boot system bootflash:/n6000-uk9.7.0.7.N1.1.bin

poap transit

Isilon - Link Aggregation LACP

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