Port channels combine individual links into a group to create a single logical link that provides the aggregate bandwidth of up to eight physical links. Creating port channels helps to increase bandwidth and redundancy and to load balance traffic between the member ports. If a member port within a port channel fails, the traffic from the failed port switches to the remaining member ports.

Port channels must have atleast two ports and can be configured using static mode or Link Access Control Protocol (LACP). Configuration changes that are applied to the port channel are applied to each member port of the port channel. A port channel can also be added to a bridge. When a port channel has two or more than two members and the port channel is added to a bridge, a bond is created.

A port can be a member of only one port channel and all the ports in a port channel must be compatible. Each port must use the same speed and operate in full-duplex mode.

Note

The Physical Network Interface Controllers (PNICs) added to the port channel should be uniform. For example, all the PNICs associated with the port channel must have SRIOV VFs or they should not have SRIOV VFs. The Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) can be associated only with port channels that have no SRIOV VFs attached to them. When a port channel is attached to a bridge and if the port channel has SRIOV VFs attached, the bridge gets automatically downgraded to a non-DPDK bridge.

A port channel must have at least two ports. A bond is created when a port channel has more than two members and the port channel is added to a bridge. You can add a port to a new port channel or a port channel that already contains ports.

To add a port to a port channel:

configure terminal
pnic eth1 member_of pc
commit

You can add a port channel to a new bridge or an existing bridge. When a port channel is added to a bridge, a bond is added for the port channel.

To add a port channel to a bridge:

configure terminal
bridges bridge test-br port pc
commit

Before deleting a port channel, you must remove all members assigned to the port channel. If the port channel is configured on the bridge, you must remove the port channel from the bridge.

To delete a port channel:

configure terminal
no pnic pc
commit

To remove a port from a port channel:

configure terminal
no pnic eth1 member_of pc
commit

To remove a port channel from a bridge:

configure terminal
no bridges bridge test-br port pc
commit

Starting from NFVIS 3.7.1 release, LLDP is supported on NFVIS. The Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is used by network devices for advertising their identity, capabilities, and neighbors. You can configure LLDP on a PNIC which is not a port channel or a DPDK port. By default, LLDP is disabled for all PNICs.

LLDP information is sent by devices from each of their interfaces at a fixed interval, in the form of an Ethernet frame. Each frame contains one LLDP Data Unit (LLDPDU). Each LLDPDU is a sequence of type-length-value (TLV) structures.

LLDP is enabled in transmit and receive mode. The LLDP agent can transmit the local system capabilities and status information and receive the remote system's capabilities and status information

If LLDP is enabled on two connected devices, they can see each other as neighbors.

Note	LLDP packets are not propagated to VMs. LLDP cannot be enabled on port channel or DPDK ports.

To enable LLDP on a PNIC:

configure terminal
pnic eth0 lldp enabled
commit

To disable LLDP on a PNIC:

configure terminal
pnic eth0 lldp disabled
commit

Use the show lldp neighbors command to display the peer information:

nfvis# show lldp neighbors eth0
--------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE                                                 
NAME ID      HOLDTIME  CAPS  PLATFORM  PORTID  DESCRIPTION  

--------------------------------------------------------------
eth0 Switch1623 120 Bridge, Router Cisco IOS Software, Catalyst L3 Switch Software (CAT3K_CAA-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.0(1)EX3, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)Ifname:
Gi1/0/4GigabitEthernet1/0/4

Use the show lldp stats command to display the tx and rx information:

nfvis# show lldp stats eth0
------------------------------------------------------------------
TX      DISCARD  ERROR  RX      DISCARDED  UNREC           
NAME   FRAMES  RX       RX     FRAMES    TLVS       TLVS   AGEOUTS  
------------------------------------------------------------------
eth0    23      0        0       19667     0         0         0

Administrative status provides a mechanism for configuring the administrative status of a port. It can be set to up or down and the default setting is on.

Note	Administrative status cannot be enabled on port channel.

To configure the admin status on a pnic for a VM:

configure terminal
pnic GE0-1 admin status down
commit

Use the show pnic command to verify the admin status configuration. Use the show pnic link_state command to verify the admin state configuration.

nfvis# show pnic GE0-1 link_state
link_state down

Admin Status Configuration APIs and Commands

APIs	Commands
/api/config/pnics/pnic/<pnic_name>/adminstatus	pnic <pnic_name> adminstatus

Note	Speed and duplex values in show pnic and ethtool outputs may differ depending on the peer device's interface speed and duplex settings.

Note	This feature is supported only on ENCS 5400 starting from NFVIS 3.10.1 release.

In a virtual environment when the PNIC goes down there is no indication to the interfaces inside the VNFs. It is useful to track state changes of PNICs including switch ports to one or more VNF interfaces and accordingly bring down or up the vNICs. This feature brings the appropriate interfaces inside the VNF up or down based on the PNIC state changes. Most of the VNFs support this functionality.

Track state can also be configured for LAN-SRIOV. The LAN network is not physically connected to LAN-SRIOV. Switch ports are connected to an embedded switch on the LAN side. The switch has an int-LAN interface which is a 10G interface the VMs can connect to from the LAN network using VFs (virtual functions). Therefore, the VM is not directly connected to LAN-SRIOV.

Track state configuration on WAN-SRIOV is not needed, as there is a one to one connection between WAN-SRIOV and the VM.

Track state can be configured for monitored and un-monitored VMs. If a track state configuration is deleted, the PNIC or switch port state changes will not be notified to the vNICs or VFs.

The VM has to be first deployed before you can configure PNIC track state for the VM. VNFs or vNICs do not have to be attached to a bridge connected to the PNIC.

To configure track state on a pnic for a VM use the following commands: pnic <pnic_name> track-state <vm_name> <vnic> or pnic <pnic_name> track-state <deploy_name.vm_grp_name> <vnic>

configure terminal
pnic GE0-0 track-state ROUTER 0
end

To verify the track state configuration on the VM use the show interface or ethtool commands or the VM specific command that displays the interface link state.

In the following example, the vedge VM deployed and vNIC 0 is being tracked by GE0-1. The if-oper-status command shows the state of the vNIC being tracked by pNIC. When GE0-1 is down, if-oper-status also shows as down.

NFVIS supports autonegotiation by default on all PNICs. Speed and duplex are set to auto mode to indicate autonegotiation is enabled.

Autonegotiation allows a PNIC to communicate with the device on the other end of the link to determine the optimal duplex mode and speed for the connection. Autonegotiation can be turned off by configuring speed and duplex. Supported Ethernet speed is 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1G and 10 G.

Duplex mode displays the data flow on the interface. Duplex mode on an interface can be full or half duplex. A half-duplex interface can only transmit or receive data at any given time and a full-duplex interface can send and receive data simultaneously.

When autonegotiation is enabled on a port, it does not automatically determine the configuration of the port on the other side of the ethernet cable to match it. Autonegotiation only works if it is enabled on both sides of the link. If one side of a link has auto-negotiation enabled, and the other side of the link does not, then autonegotiation cannot determine the speed and duplex configurations of the other side. If autonegotiation is enabled on the other side of the link, the two devices decide together on the best speed and duplex mode. Each interface advertises the speed and duplex mode at which it can operate, and the best match is selected. Higher speed and full duplex is the preferred mode.

If one side of a link does not have autonegotiation enabled, then the speed and duplex on both sides must match so that the data can transmit without collisions. Autonegotiation fails on 10/100 links, if one side of the link has been set to 100/full, and the other side has been set to autonegotiation which is 100/half.

Note	Not all ports on ENCS 5000 series devices support auto-mdix feature. When autonegotiation is disabled, you need to use the correct cable to configure speed and duplex correctly. The cable type depends on the remote system, based on which you can try straight through or cross over cable.

To disable autonegotiation on a PNIC, speed and duplex must be configured:

configure terminal
pnic GE0-0 speed 100 duplex full
commit

To enable autonegotiation on a PNIC:

configure terminal
pnic GE0-0 speed auto duplex auto
commit

To configure speed and duplex with non auto values:

configure terminal
pnic GE0-0 speed 100 duplex full
commit

Use the show pnic GE0-0 operational-speed , show pnic GE0-0 operational-duplex and show pnic GE0-0 autoneg to verify the configurations.

nfvis# show pnic GE0-0 operational-speed
operational-speed 100 

nfvis# show pnic GE0-0 operational-duplex
operational-duplex full

nfvis# show pnic GE0-0 autoneg
autoneg off

To verify the PNIC speed and duplex configurations, use the show notification stream nfvis Event command.

notification
event Time 2019-12-16T22:52:49.238604+00:00
nfvisEvent
    user_id admin
    config_change true
    transaction_id 0
    status FAILURE
    status_code 0
    status_message Pnic GE0-1 speed did not update successfully
    details NA
    event_type PNIC_SPEED_UPDATE
    severity INFO
    host_name nfvis
    !
!
notification
event Time 2019-12-16T22:53:05.01598+00:00
nfvisEvent
    user_id admin
    config_change true
    transaction_id 0
    status SUCCESS
    status_code 0
    status_message Pnic GE0-1 duplex updated successfully:full
    details NA
    event_type PNIC_DUPLEX_UPDATE
    severity INFO
    host_name nfvis
    !
!