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  3. November 2018

Re: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd Eternet Switch for Load balancing/fail over

That does make sense. It was also true with the old POWER6/POWER7 HEA some things were disallowed unless 100% was allocated to one partition.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 11/17/2018 10:36 AM, Roberto José Etcheverry Romero wrote:
Just for record's sake. I can confirm that LACP/Link Aggr between SRIOV
adapters and vLAGed NE1032T works. Only detail (that's obvious if you think
about how SRIOV and LACP work) is that you must give 100% of the port to
the LPAR that will be doing LACP.

On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 11:12 AM Roberto José Etcheverry Romero <
yggdrasil.raiker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This is worrysome for me. The switches for my latest implementation should
arrive next week, a couple of Lenovo switches. I'll update here with my
findings.


On Thu, Oct 18, 2018 at 10:45 AM DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You are correct that this support was enabled in TR3 though LACP wasn't
supported until a later TR (TR7) which hopefully every one already has!!!

You should choose *LNKAGG if your switches support that. This is a more
standard implementation while *ETHCHL was a Cisco only spec that some
other manufacturers did support.

For the policy that's an 'It Depends' question as this is what
determines which link in the bundle to send the packets across. Consider
that with a single connection between IBM i and another device, such as
each file during an FTP session, only 1 link of the bundle is used. This
simply determines which of the links is chosen for each connection.

If you have a lot of connections (e.g. many users) then I recommend
leaving the default of *DFT there. Second choice would be *SRCDESTP.

Do note that in this thread there has been discussion about vPC/vLAGG
(Virtual Port Channel/Virtual Link Agg). This is not supported in very
many switches in my experience but more importantly I have never been
able to make it work from IBM i to a switch pair that DOES support it.
IN THEORY it should work as there isn't any config required on the
downstream (which would be IBM i) Side.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 10/18/2018 8:52 AM, Steinmetz, Paul wrote:
First of all, thanks to everyone for all the tips and links.

I did some research.
Ethernet Link Aggregation was announced 10/14/2011 V7R1 TR3.
This is why it is missing from most of the "older" links on TCP/IP load
balancing/fail over.
Also referencing link by Dawn May,

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/i-can/archive/ethernet-link-aggregation-in-ibm-i/

"In short, Ethernet Link Aggregation lets 7.1 TR3 users make better use
of their Ethernet resources, potentially improving the reliability and
performance of their network workloads without purchasing any additional
hardware."

ELA is probably the simplest, easiest, quickest to implement.

>From Dawn's example,
CRTLINETH LIND(ETHAGG) RSRCNAME(*AGG) AGGPCY(*ETHCHL *SRCDESTP)
AGGRSCL(CMN02 CMN03)

Questions.

1) Our proposed switch will be Cisco Catalyst 6506-E
Do I have options on the Cisco or must LACP be used?

2) Should AGGPCY be set to *ETHCHL or *LNKAGG?
Based on the one link, I'm thinking *LNKAGG
IBM(r) i Link Aggregation supports static aggregation (*ETHCHL) with
any link partner, and supports LACP (*LNKAGG) with Cisco and IBM Networking
switches. Other LACP-capable link partners might work, but are not
officially supported.

*ETHCHL
Specifies to use Etherchannel technology to allow
several Ethernet adapters to be aggregated together to
form a single psuedo Ethernet device.
*LNKAGG
Specifies to use IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation
technology to allow several Ethernet adapters to be
aggregated together to form a single psuedo Ethernet
device.

3) What should Policy type be set to? *DFT, *SRCPORT, *DESTPORT,
*SRCDESTP, *RNDRBN
*DFT
The adapter selection algorithm uses the last byte of the
Destination IP address (for TCP/IP traffic) or MAC address (for ARP
and other non-IP traffic). This mode is typically the best initial
choice for a server with a large number of clients.
*SRCPORT
The adapter selection algorithm uses the source TCP/IP or UDP port
value.
*DESTPORT
The outgoing adapter path is selected via an algorithm using the
destination TCP/IP or UDP port value.
*SRCDESTP
The outgoing adapter path is selected via an algorithm using the
combined source and destination TCP or UDP port values.
*RNDRBN
Outgoing traffic is spread evenly across all the adapter ports in
the Etherchannel. This mode is the typical choice for two host
connected back-to-back (i.e. without a intervening switch).

Paul






-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Steinmetz, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 2:46 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd Eternet
Switch for Load balancing/fail over

Jim,

The solution you sent in the first link appears the simplest/easiest.
Ethernet Link Aggregation - Link Aggregation binds several full-duplex
Ethernet links running at the same speed together into one logical link
with a single Media Access Control (MAC) address.
One interface, One line description with multiple resources.

I'm not seeing that solution as part of the 2nd link starting at page
25.
Is this a "newer" solution, possibly not included with some of the
older docs.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jim Oberholtzer
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 2:31 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd Eternet
Switch for Load balancing/fail over

Rob:

VIOS is by far and away the best way to virtualize Ethernet and provide
for
failover/load balancing. That said I don't think Paul has that
environment.


Paul:

As someone pointed out VIPA might fit the situation as well. Here's a
document that explains all:


https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_72/rzajw/rzajwpdf.pdf

Start on about page 25. It'll talk about workload balancing and then
next
scenario is failover.

I find VIPA to be confusing to most folks, particularly the non IBM i
network administrator that will most likely understand what your trying
to
do but then not be helpful in the end since it's not Microsoft/Cisco.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Rob
Berendt
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 1:21 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd Eternet
Switch
for Load balancing/fail over

We use two VIOS lpars. One controls one ethernet card and the other
controls the other. They both go to different switches.
I'm so damned confident of this solution that I've upgraded VIOS during
the
middle of the day. Of course when you use the same solution on three
Power
systems and you test it out on the sandbox machine first it helps.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600
Mail
to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: "Steinmetz, Paul" <PSteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 10/16/2018 02:13 PM
Subject: RE: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd
Eternet
Switch for Load balancing/fail over
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



Jim,


https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzajy/rzajylinka
gg.htm


Thanks for that link.
The diagram was very helpful.
So only one interface and line description are used.
No changes to the interface, only to the line description.

AGGPCY (Aggregate policy) would be set to either *ETHCHL or *LNKAGG
(Not
sure which method at this point)
AGGRSCL (Aggregated resource list) would contain the resource names
CMN01,
CMN02.

One key question.
The link prerequisites states that this solution is only valid
everything
is going to one/same switch.
" All of the ports must be connected to the same link partner (switch)."
My intended solution is going to a 2nd switch.

Is there a different configuration if a 2nd switch is involved?

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jim
Oberholtzer
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 12:07 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd Eternet
Switch
for Load balancing/fail over


https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzajy/rzajylinka
gg.htm






--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Steinmetz, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 10:54 AM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion' <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: How to configure a 2nd Enthernet port to a 2nd Eternet Switch
for
Load balancing/fail over

I'm looking for a resource (pdf/link) on how to configure a 2nd Ethernet
port to a 2nd Ethernet Switch for Load balancing/fail over.
The goal is to provide a higher level of redundancy for if either the
5899
PCI port or the Ethernet switch would fail.
The 2nd port would be connected to a 2nd switch.

I need the details for both the Interface and line description, and any
other TCP/IP config changes (default routes, static routes, etc), if
needed.

Thank You
_____
Paul Steinmetz
IBM i Systems Administrator

Pencor Services, Inc.
462 Delaware Ave
Palmerton Pa 18071

610-826-9117 work
610-826-9188 fax
610-349-0913 cell
610-377-6012 home

psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pencor.com/


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