switch networking help

Thu Apr 14 17:06:59 UTC 2011

On Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:47:32 -0500, Deric Kwok <deric.kwok2000 at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Hello
>
> I would like to ask general question about switch speed experience.
>
> How can I increase speed in switch port?

The speed of the switch port is limited by the hardware. Make sure you are  
running a nic capable of the maximum switchport speed and that they are  
configured to be the maximum speed either by negotiation or manually.

Most switches now days are 100mbps or 1000mbps. If it is too slow for you,  
try upgrading both the end point and replacing the switch to 10G. If you  
give us a make/model number, it is much easier to tell you what your  
switch can do.

>
> ls it to combine more than one port? Any other solution?

Yes, there are a few ways and they vary by vendor, but the most common way  
is LACP etherchannel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation#Link_Aggregation_Control_Protocol

>
> In combing ports, what are the advantages and disadvantages?

The advantage is increased bandwidth (naturally), also increased  
redundancy. Unfortunately LACP does not give a true "2gbps" capability, it  
simply load balances between the two links based on various factors. So a  
single connection will only go up to 1gbps, even if the nic connecting it  
to the switch is a 10gbps connection. However for switch uplinks this is  
rarely a problem (so long as the correct load balancing algorithm is  
selected) as multiple hosts are connected at 1gbps trying to go upstream.

>
> Any info and experience.  Thank you for your sharing.
>

This is a 60 second overview and there is much more to this topic than I  
have said, but hopefully this will get you on your feet.

-=Tom Donnelly

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