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Hi all.

How does one configure two Gig links between these devices (Etherchannel to
MLT on Nortel)?

I have one Gig Fiber link working fine between them using 802.1q, multiple
VLANs flowing through nicely.

I'd like to have two Gig connections aggregated between them. However if I
setup Multi-Link Trunking on the Nortel Side (it's version of Etherchannel),
the connection to the Cisco dies! What do you do on the Cisco side? I'm
new to Cisco, sorry.

If I can get this to work, the next step is to attempt connections from the
Cisco to the Nortel in a Split MLT config.
ie. Cisco has a 1Gig connection to two Nortel switches, one Nortel switch
dies, the Cisco should stay up!

In article <DMx8d.3106$>,
Not-My-Real-Name <> wrote:
:How does one configure two Gig links between these devices (Etherchannel to
:MLT on Nortel)?

:I have one Gig Fiber link working fine between them using 802.1q, multiple
:VLANs flowing through nicely.

:I'd like to have two Gig connections aggregated between them. However if I
:setup Multi-Link Trunking on the Nortel Side (it's version of Etherchannel),
:the connection to the Cisco dies! What do you do on the Cisco side? I'm
:new to Cisco, sorry.

In order to do link aggregation between those two devices, you
will need to configure both sides to use IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation
(LACP). Nortel has two kinds of link aggregation in their new software
releases, only one of which is 802.3aq compatable.

On the Cisco side, to use 802.3ad with the 450x series routers, you
need to have Supervisor Engine II Plus installed, and you need to be
using IOS release 12.2(20)EWA -- or so the feature navigator documents.
However, further research shows that it is supported in IOS for the 4500
series as early as 12.2(13)EW, and that it is also supported on
Supervisor Engine IV, and Supervisor Engine V. Furthermore, 802.3ad
is supported in some versions of CatOS with some supervisor engines
(the 720 at least.)

A configuration guide for 802.3ad in CatOS on the 4500 can be found at
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/...html#wp1048854


--
"WHEN QUINED, YIELDS A TORTOISE'S LOVE-SONG"
WHEN QUINED, YIELDS A TORTOISE'S LOVE-SONG. (GEB)

Thanks for the reply Walter.
I'm running CATos on the 4506, not IOS does that matter? 3.2 code on the
Nortel.

In article <kVA8d.3115$>,
Not-My-Real-Name <> wrote:
:I'm running CATos on the 4506, not IOS does that matter? 3.2 code on the
:Nortel.

I did not check the documentation in detail, but what I did look at
did -suggest- that 802.3ad support on the Cisco 4506 lags requires
the newer more powerful Supervisor Engine, such as the 720. The easiest
way to find out if it is supported on your Cisco system with your software
release would be to follow the configuration instructions in the link I
gave in the last posting and see if all the commands needed are
recognized.

Also, I have not had a chance to look over the 8600 documentation to
see when it started supporting 802.3ad . My recollection (and I could
be wrong) is that what Nortel refers to as MLT is -not- 802.3ad, or
at least didn't start out as 802.3ad [which is a relatively recent
standard] but perhaps now has an 802.3ad mode you can configure.
--
Reviewers should be required to produce a certain number of
negative reviews - like police given quotas for handing out
speeding tickets. -- The Audio Anarchist

802.3ad (LACP) is supported on the Passport 8600 in the 3.7.x codestream. I
am not sure about the support for a 8100 though.

We have used this feature to interoperate between switches and hosts. It
appears to work really well.

As previously stated, Nortel's MLT is proprietary, and I can confirm that
you will have problems getting it interoperate with hosts and switches that
are using Etherchannel and the likes. I was able to get a Novell server
running the Etherchannel driver and a Nortel BS450 running MLT to work, but
I was never able to replicate that with a Windows box. It is wierd stuff,
and you will probably have much better luck with both sides of the link
running 802.3ad.

-mike


"Walter Roberson" <> wrote in message
news:cjuoak$k7b$...
> In article <kVA8d.3115$>,
> Not-My-Real-Name <> wrote:
> :I'm running CATos on the 4506, not IOS does that matter? 3.2 code on
> the
> :Nortel.
>
> I did not check the documentation in detail, but what I did look at
> did -suggest- that 802.3ad support on the Cisco 4506 lags requires
> the newer more powerful Supervisor Engine, such as the 720. The easiest
> way to find out if it is supported on your Cisco system with your software
> release would be to follow the configuration instructions in the link I
> gave in the last posting and see if all the commands needed are
> recognized.
>
> Also, I have not had a chance to look over the 8600 documentation to
> see when it started supporting 802.3ad . My recollection (and I could
> be wrong) is that what Nortel refers to as MLT is -not- 802.3ad, or
> at least didn't start out as 802.3ad [which is a relatively recent
> standard] but perhaps now has an 802.3ad mode you can configure.
> --
> Reviewers should be required to produce a certain number of
> negative reviews - like police given quotas for handing out
> speeding tickets. -- The Audio Anarchist

Michael Roberts <> wrote:
> As previously stated, Nortel's MLT is proprietary, and I can confirm that
> you will have problems getting it interoperate with hosts and switches that
> are using Etherchannel and the likes. I was able to get a Novell server
> running the Etherchannel driver and a Nortel BS450 running MLT to work, but
> I was never able to replicate that with a Windows box. It is wierd stuff,
> and you will probably have much better luck with both sides of the link
> running 802.3ad.

I was under the impression that Nortel's MLT is statically compliant
with 802.3ad, even before 3.7.x code. It simply hashes on the MAC/IP
addresses to determine which outbound link to send on. Before 3.7.x,
there was no LACP support. Therefore, it should simply work with any
other device that works in a similar manner that can be statically
configured. I've used it with other vendor's switches, but not Cisco.

You may have issues with Spanning Tree, however, due to the different
ways Nortel and Cisco do multiple spanning trees and which links they
send the STP BPDU's out on. I believe Cisco sends them on all ports,
and Nortel only sends them on the lowest port of an MLT. Cisco
compatibility is added in Nortel 8600 v3.7.x code, with PVST+ support
and the ability to send STP BPDU's on all links of a 802.3ad bundle.

That is what I thought as well, but I had a number of problems using MLT to
connect to a server that was configured to use 802.3ad. What is a
server/driver problem or a switch problem????? I was never able to
determine. Running that same server/river using 802.3ad on both sides
worked.....

Nortel's recommendation to us was to shutdown STP on MLT enabled ports,
which could be dangerous. We have STP enabled on our 802.3ad connections.
However, right now those connections are only Nortel-Nortel and
Nortel-Server configurations.

-mike


"Charles R. Anderson" <> wrote in message
news: ...
> Michael Roberts <> wrote:
>> As previously stated, Nortel's MLT is proprietary, and I can confirm that
>> you will have problems getting it interoperate with hosts and switches
>> that
>> are using Etherchannel and the likes. I was able to get a Novell server
>> running the Etherchannel driver and a Nortel BS450 running MLT to work,
>> but
>> I was never able to replicate that with a Windows box. It is wierd
>> stuff,
>> and you will probably have much better luck with both sides of the link
>> running 802.3ad.
>
> I was under the impression that Nortel's MLT is statically compliant
> with 802.3ad, even before 3.7.x code. It simply hashes on the MAC/IP
> addresses to determine which outbound link to send on. Before 3.7.x,
> there was no LACP support. Therefore, it should simply work with any
> other device that works in a similar manner that can be statically
> configured. I've used it with other vendor's switches, but not Cisco.
>
> You may have issues with Spanning Tree, however, due to the different
> ways Nortel and Cisco do multiple spanning trees and which links they
> send the STP BPDU's out on. I believe Cisco sends them on all ports,
> and Nortel only sends them on the lowest port of an MLT. Cisco
> compatibility is added in Nortel 8600 v3.7.x code, with PVST+ support
> and the ability to send STP BPDU's on all links of a 802.3ad bundle.