ESXi and Etherchannel / LACP - Vcenter

[Hostilian 14]

Unfrotunately, I have an HP Switch, which doesnt support Etherchannel.. So it doesnt seem like i can get Port aggregation to work with Standalone ESXi..

 

LACP apparenty is an option with Vcenter - in a distributed switch - but I really would prefer to keep it standalone and there's not much point in a distributed switch when there's only one host..

IF I did add it to a separate Datacenter in VCenter? Would LACP still work if the VCenter server was not running?

 

I would like proper LACP/Etherchannel, rather than just adding multiple physical NICs to the vswitch, because it's much, much, much better..

 

Any workarounds? Maybe command line?

 

Many thanks!

 

#H

[Hostilian 14]

Just bought a used Cisco switch (3750G-24ts)..

I wish things would just bloody work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

[Hostilian 14]

OK.. Some info for those that want to set up Etherchannel or Trunking between ESXi and an HP (or cisco) switch..

Not strictly Synology related - but I'm looking to host at least 2 syno boxes in ESXi, possibly 3, so need the throughput!

 

It's all very well just adding a few uplinks to the vSwitch but you simply don't get the desired throughput until you set this up (tested by copying files to 2 separate vSyno servers from two separate computers).. Without link aggregation you get approximately  113/2 MB/s per computer.. WITH link aggregation/etherchannel, you get 110 each..

Oh and (in DSM) 'Adaptive Load Balancing' as a Bond Method is next to useless (apart from redundancy)..

 

HP Switch<>ESXi

Set up a TRUNK (using the GUI) with the switchports you're using. Just go into the configuration of each port and change it from 'access' to 'trunk', there isn't a separate section for Trunking..

Don't use LACP as it won't work with Standalone ESXi.

 

OR

 

cisco Switch<>ESXi

Set up an etherchannel port group containing the switchports you want..

 

AND

 

ESXi config..

vSwitch - Route based on IP hash for the NIC teaming, with notify switches set to Yes..

VMNetwork - take settings from vSwitch..

 

Hope this helps,

 

#H