Adding link aggregations

This field lists the available aggregation names. Select a name from the list.

This field lists the available ge (gigabit Ethernet) and tg (10 GbE) interfaces to add to the aggregation. To add an interface to the aggregation, select the check box next to the name of the interface.

This field specifies whether the aggregation uses LACP. An aggregation that does not use LACP is called a static aggregation, and an aggregation that does use LACP is called a dynamic aggregation.

This field displays the port load balancing scheme in use for all interfaces in the aggregation.

The options are:

• Normal - the server distributes all traffic for a given conversation through one of the physical interfaces in the appropriate aggregation. The server's hash and routing functions determine which packets use which physical interfaces. For example, all traffic for a particular TCP connection is always distributed through the same physical interface (unless the link drops). However, the server is not guaranteed to respond to the same client on the same interface.
• Round robin - the server selects outgoing interfaces in sequential order, on a packet-by-packet basis. This aggregation load balancing function ensures that all the interfaces are more or less equally used. The disadvantage of round robin is that the clients must be able to cope with out of order TCP traffic at high speed. The LACP specification (802.3ad) requires that an implementation must follow the appropriate rules to minimize out of order traffic and duplicated packets. Round robin load balancing directly contravenes this requirement. However, it can be useful when, for example, running security scan request traffic, by increasing throughput.

Select the radio button next to the required load balancing scheme.