IP 9.1 has been enhanced with functionality to manage link aggregation, which is recognized by industry as Etherchannel or Portchannel. This means that IP server recognizes multiple connections between two devices as a single consolidated connection.
Link Aggregation allows one or more ports to be aggregated together to form a Link Aggregation Group (LAG), such that a MAC Client can treat the Link Aggregation Group as if it were a single link.
Link Aggregation Group (LAG) discovery is supported on Cisco Nexus 5000 switches through CLI discovery. LAG can be formed using LACP / PAGP (Cisco proprietary) signalling protocol. Both LACP and PAGP protocols are supported by IP.
This feature allows:
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Detection of failure of logical groups. When there is a signal failure or a failure in all of the discrete connections, then a single Down problem is reported on the LAG.
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Discovery of peer port connectivity and Logical Group connectivity in Cisco devices.
Note:This is true even when the neighbor discovery protocol is not enabled.
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Detection of traffic load imbalance among ports that participate in an aggregation. Generates the event UnbalancedAdapterUtilization for AggregatePort when traffic load is relatively imbalanced.
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Chapter 1 in IP Manager Reference Guide provides more information on how the this event is calculated.
