Etherchannel Configuration for Cisco 2960 WS-C2960S-48TS-L

I'm a software guy and new to setting up switches. I was told I can setup an Etherchannel on my 2 new Cisco WS-C2960S-48TS-L switches. I was told I can connect both switches together with just 1 cable, or setup Etherchannel and use 2 cables for double the bandwith. I'm not sure how to proceed. I've done quite a bit of research. Here is what I have come up with but not tried out yet. I'm not sure if what I have is even correct, and if I should use trunk or access or what mode to use. Just want to connect these 2 switches using 2 cables.

Switch1> enable

Switch1# configure terminal

Switch1(config)# interface range GigabitEthernet1/0/47-48

Switch1(config-if-range)# switchport mode trunk

Switch1(config-if-range)# channel-group 1 mode active

Switch1(config-if-range)# end

Switch2> enable

Switch2# configure terminal

Switch2(config)# interface range GigabitEthernet1/0/47-48

Switch2(config-if-range)# switchport mode trunk

Switch2(config-if-range)# channel-group 1 mode desirable

Switch2(config-if-range)# end

The solution:

The choice between trunk and access mode is simply whether or not you intend to pass multiple vlans between the switches. In most situations links between switches are configured as trunks, even if there is only a single vlan because it allows for a non-disruptive ability to add vlans in the future.

I would also recommend going with the port channel for both bandwidth and failover abilities assuming you have the ports to spare. Also, there is nothing wrong with using the "desirable" mode for the port channel, however, I would recommend going with "active" mode instead on both ends. The difference is that desirable uses a Cisco proprietary protocol and active uses a standards based protocol. There is no advantage in either protocol when dealing with Cisco switches, but without any advantage I would suggest going with the standards based protocol.

One thing to bear in mind when it comes to etherchannel bandwidth. A single session, such as a file transfer, will only use a single physical port in the etherchannel. This means that the bandwidth for a single session will never exceed the bandwidth of a single link within the etherchannel. You can have multiple sessions occurring simultaneously that utilize the full bandwidth of all links, but the individual session can only use one link.

Port-channel and etherchannel are interchangeable terms in the Cisco world. The configuration looks good. One thing you will have to check after running those commands is the actual port-channel configuration. Depending on the code version you will either need to configure the port-channel for trunk mode, or you might not need to do anything. So after running the commands, look at the running configuration and you'll see an interface port-channel 1 which should be configured as a trunk. If not,

config t

interface port-channel 1

switchport

switchport mode trunk

no shut

and you should be all set.

Other good commands are "show interface port-channel 1", and "show etherchannel summary". These will verify that the port-channel is up and both interfaces are members.

One more thing. Depending on the switch model and code version, you might also need to run the command "switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q" to each trunk interface including the port-channel.

Customers interested in purchasing Cisco 2960 or the price, please refer to below links:

http://www.3anetwork.com/cisco-catalyst-2960-switches-price_c39