Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System: An Example of How to Configure Link Aggregation on a Switch

Asset ID:	1-71-1400154.1
Update Date:	2018-05-15
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 1400154.1 : Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System: An Example of How to Configure Link Aggregation on a Switch

Applies to:

Sun ZFS Storage 7120 - Version All Versions and later
Sun ZFS Storage 7320 - Version All Versions and later
Sun ZFS Storage 7420 - Version All Versions and later
Sun Storage 7110 Unified Storage System - Version All Versions and later
Sun Storage 7210 Unified Storage System - Version All Versions and later
7000 Appliance OS (Fishworks)
This is a configuration example for a Cisco Catalyst 3750-series switch only - but shows the necessary steps for switch-side configuration.

Goal

This document presents an example of how a network switch needs to be configured to be able to support an aggregated datalink from the Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage appliance.

Solution

Link Aggregation requires configuration on both the appliance and switch side of the connection.

If your switch supports LACP (IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol) then both sides should have LACP link negotiation turned on.

The appliance side settings for enabling LACP are defined at the datalink layer of the network configuration view. Valid values for LACP-enabled aggregations are "Active" and "Passive."

The switch must be set with a compatible value for the corresponding switch aggregation. Compatible appliance/switch value combinations are Active/Active, Active/Passive, and Passive/Active.

The appliance setting of "on" forces aggregation of the associate ports without using LACP. Forcing the ports to aggregate without using LACP may be necessary for compatibility with switches that either have LACP turned off or do not support 802.3ad LACP.

Example:

The appliance has a primary management interface configured on nge0 using a simple device-datalink and single static IP.

Additionally, the administrator wants to configure a link aggregation using the remaining built-in devices (nge1, nge2, and nge3). These 3 ports are connected to a Cisco Catalyst 3750-series switch (ports 11, 12, and 13 respectively).

The administrator chooses to use an LACP setting of "Active" for the appliance and "Passive" for the switch.

Finally, the administrator chooses the load balancing policy for outbound traffic will be based on IP address, while the incoming traffic will use layer-2 MAC addresses.

On the appliance side - the administrator configures this from the browser interface (Configuration->Network).

NOTE: Ports involved in a given aggregation should be present on the SAME switch (not across switches):

eg. (nge0 + nge1) <== aggr1 ==> (port0 + port1) switch1

NOT (nge0 + nge1) <== aggr1 ==> (port0) switch1 + (port1) switch2

NOTE: The example screenshots below (from the BUI) for the Link Aggregation configuration are for the 'igb2' & 'igb3' interfaces.
The configuration required is the same irrespective of the actual interfaces used.

LACP_configuration

Click the "Datalinks" icon and check the LACP Aggregation option. Then select the 3 devices that will comprise the aggregation (in this case nge1, nge2 and nge3).

for Aggregation Settings - choose Mode=Active, Policy=L3, and Timer=Long. Then click Apply. Finally, add an IP interface and associate it with the new (aggregation) datalink.

Datalinks

Drag to the Interfaces. Click the pencil icon and set the IP address

Interfaces

Configuring LCAP in a cluster system is done in the same manner.

As above, any switches used for Link Aggregation must support LACP (IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol). Please follow the appropriate switch vendor documentation for setup.

See Page 24 of the following White Paper - Networking Best Practices with the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/sun-unified-storage/documentation/networking-bestprac-zfssa-2215767.pdf

Also see - Recommendations for IP Network Infrastructure

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/servers-storage-admin/sto-settings-ip-network-1968080.html

On the switch side, issue the following configuration commands (reminder - this is a Cisco Catalyst 3750 series running IOS 12.2x)

1) Configure the switch global setting for load balancing (layer-2)

#config term
(config)# port-channel load-balance src-mac

2) Configure the port channel group and assign LACP settings to each member interface

(config)# int range Gi1/0/11 - 13
(config-if-range)# channel-protocol lacp
(config-if-range)# channel-group 1 mode passive

3) Confirm your configuration and LACP state of each member link

# show etherchannel summary
Flags: D - down P - in port-channel
I - stand-alone s - suspended
H - Hot-standby (LACP only)
R - Layer3 S - Layer2
u - unsuitable for bundling
U - in use f - failed to allocate aggregator
d - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 1
Number of aggregators: 1

Group Port-channel Protocol Ports
------+-------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------
1 Po1(SU) LACP Gi1/0/11(P) Gi1/0/12(P) Gi1/0/13(P)

Checked for relevancy - 10-May-2018

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