this is obsolete doc -- see http://doc.nethence.com/ instead

802.3ad/LACP Link Aggregation 

Introduction 

802.3ad/LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) trunk provides increased bandwidth and redundancy. 

Note. also called "port channel", "channel bonding", "teaming" 

Note. EtherChannel PAgP is Cisco only, while 802.3ad is standard 

LACP active 

LACP passive 

Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation#Practical_notes 

Note. max 16 ports including 8 active ports. ref http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.3ad 

802.3ad/LACP on NetBSD 

Note. active only 

Create the trunk device, 

ifconfig agr0 create

ifconfig agr0 agrport re0

ifconfig agr0 agrport re1

Note. to destroy it, 

#ifconfig agr0 -agrport re0

#ifconfig agr0 -agrport re1

#ifconfig agr0 destroy

Refs. 

http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?agr++NetBSD-current 

802.3ad/LACP on Linux 

Note. active only 

Configure, 

vi /etc/modprobe.conf

add, 

options bonding mode=4 miimon=100

Note. also "xmit_hash_policy=layer3+4" 

Enable, 

modprobe bonding

ifconfig bond0 10.9.9.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

ifdown eth1

ifdown eth2

ifenslave bond0 eth1 eth2

Refs. 

http://pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysutils_linux/bonding.html 

http://www.linuxhorizon.ro/bonding.html 

http://www.cyberciti.biz/howto/question/static/linux-ethernet-bonding-driver-howto.php 

802.3ad/LACP on Cisco IOS 

Passive LACP, 

channel-group # mode on

Active LACP, 

channel-group # mode active

Note. works on a straight layer2 mac hash mechanism 

Refs. 

http://www.edgenetworks.nl/etherchannel.html 

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.dcom.sys.cisco/2008-04/msg00104.html 

http://wiki.oracle.com/page/Cisco+Systems+IOS-based+switches-+interface+bonding+and+trunking 

802.3ad/LACP static on VMware ESX 

Note. no dynamic LACP 

Supposedly on ESX here's the trick into vSwitch configuration, 

NIC Teaming tab > Load Balancing : Route based on ip hash

Note. I heard that "Setting the network port group VLAN ID to 4095 enables 802.1q trunking for any vmnic attached to that port group" 

Refs. 

http://beyondvm.com/tutorial-802-3ad-port-configuration-with-esx/ 

http://virtrix.blogspot.com/2006/11/vmware-switch-load-balancing.html 

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/12/04/esx-server-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking/ 

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/10/08/more-on-vmware-esx-nic-utilization/ 

References 

Wikipedia Link aggregation : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation