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Date:      Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:28:04 -0700
From:      Scott Long <scott4long@yahoo.com>
To:        Ivan Voras <ivoras@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        freebsd-net@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Problems with two interfaces on the same subnet?
Message-ID:  <F467A7C5-1820-4503-A7A8-26DE7D284FAE@yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <kfe0ac$fjh$1@ger.gmane.org>
References:  <kfduar$qrh$1@ger.gmane.org> <D4D47BCFFE5A004F95D707546AC0D7E91F70995D@SACEXCMBX01-PRD.hq.netapp.com> <kfdvck$6ak$1@ger.gmane.org> <CAOjFWZ75GZwYwxuuXotqsfothz2cShbaD9yZQ9Gs5p%2BYbvA7Mw@mail.gmail.com> <kfdvph$92n$1@ger.gmane.org> <kfe0ac$fjh$1@ger.gmane.org>

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On Feb 12, 2013, at 11:06 AM, Ivan Voras <ivoras@FreeBSD.org> wrote:

> On 12/02/2013 18:57, Ivan Voras wrote:
>> On 12/02/2013 18:52, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>> Any reason you can't just use lagg(4) in one of the non-LACP modes?  =
That's
>>> bascially designed to do exactly what you want.
>>=20
>> No particular reason, I'm just not familiar enough with it. Will e.g.
>> the "loadbalance" mode "just work" ? Should I expect any problems?
>=20
> Actually, I know next to nothing about link aggregation. How do ARP
> requests get solved? Would an attached L3-aware switch see the same IP
> address on two ports? Since "loadbalance" chooses ports based on a =
hash,
> it will probably start dropping 50% of the outgoing traffic if one of
> the two links dies?
>=20
>=20

If you use simple load balancing, either via round-robin or hashed =
flows, then
yes, your switch will see 2 MAC addresses and a single IP.  I believe =
that in this
scheme only one interface will respond to ARP requests, so peer hosts =
won't get
too confused, and if your switch is only capable of L2, everything will =
work ok for
transmit.  I'm less clear on receive; maybe some L2 switches are smart =
enough to
detect this situation and balance incoming traffic, otherwise I can't =
see how RX
traffic to a single MAC could be split to other MACs.

If your switch is L3 aware, then yes, the simple load balancing will =
confuse it.
However, if it's L3 aware then it's likely going to implement =
standardize channel
bonding, either in the form of legacy Etherchannel/FEC or more modern =
LACP/802.3ad.
LACP isn't perfect, and it's quite easy for links to physically be up =
but logically be
down, resulting in blackholed traffic, but it's better than FEC.  I have =
patched to made
the FreeBSD LAGG/LACP code a little more reliable in this area, and I'll =
be posting
those patching in the coming few days.

Scott




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