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The Flow-Based per Port-Channel Load Balancing feature allows different flows of traffic over a Ten Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC) interface to be identified based on the packet header and then mapped to the different member links of the port channel. This feature enables you to apply flow-based load balancing and VLAN- manual load balancing to specific port channels.
Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the Feature Information Table at the end of this document.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/. An account on http://www.cisco.com/ is not required.
Note | The hardware components introduced in a given Cisco IOS-XE Release are supported in all subsequent releases unless otherwise specified. |
Cisco CMTS Platform |
Processor Engine |
Interface Cards |
---|---|---|
Cisco cBR-8 Converged Broadband Router |
Cisco IOS-XE Release 3.15.0S and Later Releases Cisco cBR-8 Supervisor:
|
Cisco IOS-XE Release 3.15.0S and Later Releases Cisco cBR-8 CCAP Line Cards: Cisco cBR-8 Downstream PHY Modules: Cisco cBR-8 Upstream PHY Modules: |
Flow-based load balancing identifies different flows of traffic based on the key fields in the data packet. For example, IPv4 source and destination IP addressees can be used to identify a flow. The various data traffic flows are then mapped to the different member links of a port channel. After the mapping is done, the data traffic for a flow is transmitted through the assigned member link. The flow mapping is dynamic and changes when there is any change in the state of a member link to which a flow is assigned. The flow mappings can also change if member links are added to or removed from the GEC interface. Multiple flows can be mapped to each member link.
Load balancing dynamically maps traffic flows to the member links of a Ten GEC interface through the concept of buckets. The various defined traffic flows are mapped to the buckets and the buckets are evenly distributed among the member links. Each port channel maintains 16 buckets, with one active member link associated with each bucket. All traffic flows mapped to a bucket use the member link to which the bucket is assigned.
The router creates the buckets-to-member links mappings when you apply flow-based load balancing to a port channel and the port channel has at least one active member link. The mappings are also created when the first member link is added, or comes up, and the load-balancing method is set to flow-based.
When a member link goes down or is removed from a port channel, the buckets associated with that member link are redistributed among the other active member links in a round-robin fashion. When a member link comes up or is added to a port channel, some of the buckets associated with other links are assigned to this link.
If you change the load-balancing method, the bucket-to-member link mappings for flow-based load balancing are deleted. The mappings are also deleted if the port channel is deleted or the last member link in the port channel is deleted or goes down.
GEC interfaces can use either dynamic flow-based load balancing or VLAN-manual load balancing. You can configure the load-balancing method globally for all port channels or directly on specific port channels. The global configuration applies only to those port channels for which you have not explicitly configured load balancing. The port-channel configuration overrides the global configuration.
Flow-based load balancing is enabled by default at the global level. You must explicitly configure VLAN load balancing or the load-balancing method is flow-based.
The table below lists the load-balancing method that is applied to port channels based on the configuration:
Global Configuration |
Port-Channel Configuration |
Load Balancing Applied |
---|---|---|
Not configured |
Not configured |
Flow-based |
Flow-based |
Flow-based |
|
VLAN-manual |
VLAN-manual |
|
VLAN-manual |
Not configured |
VLAN-manual |
Flow-based |
Flow-based |
|
VLAN-manual |
VLAN-manual |
The table below lists the configuration that results if you change the global load-balancing method.
Port-Channel Configuration |
Global Configuration |
Action Taken at Port-Channel |
|
---|---|---|---|
— |
From |
To |
— |
Not configured |
Not configured |
VLAN-manual |
Changed from flow-based to VLAN-manual |
VLAN-manual |
Not configured |
Changed from VLAN- manual to flow-based |
|
Configured |
Any |
Any |
No change |
The table below lists the configuration that results if you change the port-channel load-balancing method.
Port-Channel Configuration |
Global Configuration |
Action Taken at Port-Channel |
|
---|---|---|---|
— |
From |
To |
— |
Not configured |
Not configured |
VLAN-manual |
Changed from flow-based to VLAN-manual |
Not configured |
Flow-based |
No action taken |
|
VLAN-manual |
Flow-based |
Changed from VLAN-manual to flow-based |
|
VLAN-manual |
Not configured |
Changed from VLAN- manual to flow-based |
|
Flow-based |
VLAN-manual |
Changed from flow-based to VLAN-manual |
|
Flow-based |
Not configured |
No action taken |
|
Configured |
Not configured |
VLAN-manual |
No action taken |
Not configured |
Flow-based |
Changed from VLAN- manual to flow-based |
|
VLAN-manual |
Flow-based |
Changed from VLAN-manual to flow-based |
|
VLAN-manual |
Not configured |
No action taken |
|
Flow-based |
VLAN-manual |
Changed from flow-based to VLAN-manual |
|
Flow-based |
Not configured |
Changed from flow-based to VLAN-manual |
To configure load balancing on a port channel, perform the following steps. Repeat these steps for each GEC interface.
If you have already configured your desired load-balancing method globally and want to use that method for all port channels, you need not perform this task. To configure load balancing globally, use the port-channel load-balancing vlan-manual command. If you do not configure the global command, flow-based load balancing is applied to all port channels.
show running-config interface port-channel channel-number —Displays the port channel configuration.
Following is a sample output of this command:
Router# show running-config interface port-channel 62 Building configuration... Current configuration : 108 bytes ! interface Port-channel62 ip address 12.1.1.1 255.255.255.0 ipv6 address 2001:12:1:1::1/64 mpls
show etherchannel load-balancing — Displays the load balancing method applied to each port channel.
The following is a sample output of this command:
Router# show etherchannel load-balancing EtherChannel Load-Balancing Method: Global LB Method: flow-based Port-Channel: LB Method Port-channel62 : flow-based Port-channel63 : flow-based
show interfaces port-channel channel-number etherchannel —Displays the bucket distribution currently in use.
The following is a sample output for an interface with load balancing set to flow-based:
Router(config)# show interface port-channel 62 etherchannel All IDBs List contains 8 configured interfaces Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/0 (index: 0) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/1 (index: 1) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/2 (index: 2) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/3 (index: 3) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/4 (index: 4) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/5 (index: 5) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/6 (index: 6) Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/7 (index: 7) Active Member List contains 8 interfaces Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/0 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/1 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/2 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/3 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/4 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/5 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/6 LACP Mode: Active Port: TenGigabitEthernet4/1/7 LACP Mode: Active Passive Member List contains 0 interfaces Load-Balancing method applied: flow-based Bucket Information for Flow-Based LB: Interface: Buckets TenGigabitEthernet4/1/0: Bucket 0 , Bucket 1 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/1: Bucket 2 , Bucket 3 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/2: Bucket 4 , Bucket 5 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/3: Bucket 6 , Bucket 7 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/4: Bucket 8 , Bucket 9 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/5: Bucket 10, Bucket 11 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/6: Bucket 12, Bucket 13 TenGigabitEthernet4/1/7: Bucket 14, Bucket 15
The following example shows a configuration where flow-based load balancing is configured on port-channel 2 while the VLAN-manual method is configured globally:
! no aaa new-model port-channel load-balancing vlan-manual ip source-route . . . interface Port-channel2 ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0 no negotiation auto load-balancing flow ! interface Port-channel2.10 ip rsvp authentication key 11223344 ip rsvp authentication ! interface Port-channel2.50 encapsulation dot1Q 50 ! interface TenGigabitEthernet4/1/0 no ip address negotiation auto cdp enable channel-group 2 !
Related Topic | Document Title |
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Cisco IOS commands |
Description | Link |
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Note | The table below lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature. |
Feature Name |
Releases |
Feature Information |
---|---|---|
Flow-Based per Port-Channel Load Balancing |
Cisco IOS-XE Release 3.15.0S |
This feature was introduced on the Cisco cBR Series Converged Broadband Routers. |