Question

Cisco 4 ports (1gb each) Etherchannel (lacp) only running at 1gbps speed total

Asked by: jedblack

Hi all,

I got a perplexing issue....

We have  Cisco 4906 gigabit switch and a Sun Unified Storage 7310(NAS BOX)

I and trying to get link aggregation working, it seems that the aggregation fuction is working --but my total through put is only about 1gigabit

3 Servers ---> Cisco 4ports in a an ether channel ---> Sun Nas box (4 ports)
 
When I send data from just one machine, I see it running at about 1gig line speed over 1 port from the server-->cisco-->sun nas

when i send data from all 3 machines -- I see that it aggregates the data between server---> 4ports on the cisco --- 4 ports on the sun nas -- but it drops the speed down to 1gig throughout all 4 links.

The NAS box and the 3 servers are on the same module, is there a backplane bottleneck?

LACP
Policy = L2
mode = Active
Timer = short

Is there something I'm missing?

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Asked On
2009-06-02 at 18:12:50ID24458661
Topic

Network Switches & Hubs

Participating Experts
5
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: donjohnstonPosted on 2009-06-02 at 19:08:34ID: 24533022

>Is there something I'm missing?

No.

Many people confuse Etherchannel with load balancing.

Etherchannel will distribute the traffic over ONE of the physical links based on a number of different algorithms. MAC address, IP address, TCP port numbers to name a few.

If you're copying a file from one device to another, It's almost an absolute certainty that all the traffic is crossing a single link.

If you're copying a files from 4 different hosts to one server, there's a good chance that the traffic from two (or more) of the hosts is crossing the same link.

Bottom line is that with etherchannel, the traffic will be distributed across the links. It just won't necessarily be EVENLY distributed.

 

by: jedblackPosted on 2009-06-02 at 19:25:31ID: 24533070

OK...I understand that...

However, the problem is not that its not dist. the traffic evenly -- I know that alway going to be the case...

The problem is ...the total traffic throughput is way to low...

i have 3 servers, each with "one" 1-gig line speed links all pushing data at once to the NFS share on the NAS box which has 4 ports that are under LACP connected to the 4-port etherchannel on the cisco.

I am only seeing about 101mbs(1000gbps) -- should'nt I at least be pushing data at 2-3gbps, since the data is coming from 3 seperate servers?

 

by: jedblackPosted on 2009-06-02 at 19:32:36ID: 24533090

I also disabled 2 of the ports (out of the 4-port) etherchannel, while pushing data from 2 servers.

The throughput did not change....I only saw about 50% total bandwidth usage...

so , 2- servers --- via 2-port etherchannel -- would'nt the speed be 1000gbps on each port(link)

It appears that no matter what what I am xfering, or how many servers I use -- the 4000gbps etherchannel(4-ports) is only moving data at 1000gbps speeds throughout the entire etherchannel...not indivitual links..

eg.

nge0=45mbs(megabytes)
nge1=40mbs
nge2=23mbs
nge3=900kbs

that is reported on the NAS device and the swtich

 

by: QuoriPosted on 2009-06-03 at 13:56:14ID: 24541260

Are you using any aggregation method such as PAgP or LACP on the 4 port channel?

 

by: donjohnstonPosted on 2009-06-03 at 14:14:41ID: 24541431

What load distribution method is being used? "show etherchannel load" on the switch.

 

by: Bobby_ThekkekandamPosted on 2009-06-08 at 10:12:00ID: 24574174

A couple of questions

1) How much data are you receiving FROM the servers at the switchport? At best, the switch can only send traffic out of the etherchannel as fast as it receives it from the host. If you're only receiving 1gbps aggregate from the hosts, you're not going to see more than that over the etherchannel.

2) What platform and, if applicable, linecard are you using? Oversubscription could be relevant here.

3) As donjohnston asked, the etherchannel load distribution method should also be looked at.

 

by: jedblackPosted on 2009-09-02 at 08:06:30ID: 25241828

the problem was with the NAS unit itself

 

by: jedblackPosted on 2009-09-02 at 08:08:38ID: 25241855

issue resolved

 

by: smmorenetPosted on 2009-12-10 at 12:18:51ID: 26022307

So what was the fix.  We also have a 7310 that is connected to two cisco 4948 switches.   We want to implement it the best way.  

thanks
Steve Massman
massmans@more.net

 

by: bgarbusPosted on 2010-08-12 at 08:22:02ID: 33421008

Does anyone have the fix? Same issue for me, too.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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