Extreme 3804 User Guide

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S
UMMIT
 S
WITCH
 I
NSTALLATION
 
AND
 U
SER
 G
UIDE
4-5
L
OAD
 S
HARING
L
OAD
 S
HARING
Load sharing with Summit switches allows you to increase bandwidth and resilience 
between switches by using a group of ports to carry traffic in parallel between switches. 
The sharing algorithm allows the switch to use multiple ports as a single logical port. 
For example, VLANs see the load-sharing group as a single logical port. The algorithm 
also guarantees packet sequencing between clients. 
If a port in a load-sharing group fails, traffic is redistributed to the remaining ports in 
the load-sharing group. If the failed port becomes active again, traffic is redistributed to 
include that port.
Load sharing is most useful in cases where the traffic transmitted from the switch to the 
load-sharing group is sourced from an equal or greater number of ports on the switch. 
For example, traffic transmitted to a 2-port load-sharing group should originate from a 
minimum of two other ports on the same switch.
This feature is supported between Summit switches only, but may be compatible with 
third-party “trunking” or sharing algorithms. Check with an Extreme Networks 
technical representative for more information.
show port {<portlist>} txerrors
Displays real-time transmit error statistics. For 
more information on error statistics, refer to 
show port {<portlist>} utilization
Displays real-time port utilization information. Use 
the [Spacebar] to toggle between packet, byte, 
and bandwidth utilization information.
Table 4-1: Port Commands (continued)
Command
Description
Summit.bk : 4PORTS.FM  Page 5  Thursday, June 18, 1998  9:27 AM