Configuring Link Aggregation

C H A P T E R 6

This chapter describes how to configure link aggregation. It contains the following sections:

Link Aggregation Overview

Configuring Link Aggregation in a Solaris Environment

Link Aggregation Overview

Link aggregation enables one or more network links to be aggregated together to form a link aggregation group. This link aggregation group appears to MAC clients as a regular link. Link aggregation is defined by IEEE 802.3ad and it provides the following benefits:

Increased bandwidth

Linearly incremental bandwidth

Load sharing

Automatic configuration

Rapid configuration and reconfiguration

Deterministic behavior

Low risk of duplication or misordering

Support of existing IEEE 802.3ad MAC clients

Configuring Link Aggregation in a Solaris Environment

This section explains how to configure link aggregation in a Solaris environment.

To Configure Link Aggregations

The example in this procedure aggregates sample interfaces ixgbe0, ixgbe1, ixgbe2, and ixgbe3. Arbitrary key numbers (1 and 2) are used for each aggregation.

1. Unplumb the interfaces to be aggregated:

# ifconfig ixgbe0 unplumb 
# ifconfig ixgbe1 unplumb 
# ifconfig ixgbe2 unplumb 
# ifconfig ixgbe3 unplumb

2. Create a link aggregation group with key 1 containing the first two interfaces.

In this example, the -l active option turns on LACP mode:

# dladm create-aggr -l active -d ixgbe0 -d ixgbe1 1
# ifconfig aggr1 plumb
# ifconfig aggr1 192.2.2.84 up

3. Create a link aggregation group with key 2 containing the other two interfaces.

No mode is specified for the link aggregation group in this example:

# dladm create-aggr -d ixgbe2 -d ixgbe3 2
# ifconfig aggr2 plumb
# ifconfig aggr2 193.2.2.84 up

Note - These commands change the contents of the /etc/aggregation.conf file.

To Display Information About Link Aggregations

The ifconfig and dladm commands provide different details about link aggregations, as in the following examples. For additional command options, see the man pages for ifconfig (1M) and dladm (1M).

1. Use the ifconfig command to examine the details about a link aggregation:.

The following examples display the information about the two link aggregations created in To Configure Link Aggregations.

# ifconfig aggr1
aggr1: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 32
	inet 192.2.2.84 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.2.2.255
	ether 0:15:17:75:ff:81 
# ifconfig aggr2
aggr2: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 33
	inet 193.2.2.84 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 193.2.2.255
	ether 0:15:17:75:ff:83

2. Use the dladm show-aggr command to show link aggregation status.

3. Use the dladm show-aggr -s command to show link aggregation statistics.

4. Use the dladm show-aggr -L command to display LACP specific information.

To Delete Link Aggregations

1. Use the ifconfig command to unplumb each link aggregation you want to delete.

For example:

# ifconfig aggr1 unplumb 
# ifconfig aggr2 unplumb

2. Use the dladm command to delete each unwanted link aggregation.

For example:

# dladm delete-aggr 1 
# dladm delete-aggr 2