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Layer 3 Etherchannel on Cisco IOS Switch

This document provides a guide on configuring Layer 3 Etherchannels on Cisco IOS switches, explaining that they function like router interfaces and require specific configurations. It details the necessary commands to set up the Etherchannel and verify its status, including ensuring all interfaces have identical settings. The guide concludes with instructions on assigning IP addresses to the port-channel interfaces on the switches.

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Panagiotis Manolakos
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12 views

Layer 3 Etherchannel on Cisco IOS Switch

This document provides a guide on configuring Layer 3 Etherchannels on Cisco IOS switches, explaining that they function like router interfaces and require specific configurations. It details the necessary commands to set up the Etherchannel and verify its status, including ensuring all interfaces have identical settings. The guide concludes with instructions on assigning IP addresses to the port-channel interfaces on the switches.

Uploaded by

Panagiotis Manolakos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Layer 3 Etherchannel on Cisco IOS Switch https://networklessons.com/switching/layer-3-etherch...

Layer 3 Etherchannel on Cisco IOS Switch

Rene Molenaar

In a previous lesson I explained how Etherchannels work and how to configure them, but I didn’t write
about layer 3 Etherchannels before. In this lesson, I’ll show you how to configure them.

A layer three etherchannel is similar to an interface on a router. The switch won’t “switch” traffic on this
interface but route it. Because it’s a layer three interface, we configure an IP address on it.

I’ll be using two switches for this:

Before we configure the port channel settings, you need to make sure that all interfaces have the exact same
configuration. Once you use the channel-group command, the port-channel interface will automatically
inherit all settings from your physical interface. If you forget to run the no switchport command on an
interface, your etherchannel will be layer 2 instead of layer 3!

Having said that, let’s configure our switches:

SW1(config)#interface range fastEthernet 0/1 - 2


SW1(config-if-range)#no switchport
SW1(config-if-range)#channel-group 12 mode on
Creating a port-channel interface Port-channel 12

SW2(config)#interface range fa0/1 - 2


SW2(config-if-range)#no switchport
SW2(config-if-range)#channel-group 12 mode on
Creating a port-channel interface Port-channel 12

This creates our Etherchannel. We can verify our work like this:

SW1#show etherchannel 12 summary


Flags: D - down P - bundled in port-channel
I - stand-alone s - suspended
H - Hot-standby (LACP only)
R - Layer3 S - Layer2
U - in use f - failed to allocate aggregator

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Layer 3 Etherchannel on Cisco IOS Switch https://networklessons.com/switching/layer-3-etherch...

M - not in use, minimum links not met


u - unsuitable for bundling
w - waiting to be aggregated
d - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 1


Number of aggregators: 1

Group Port-channel Protocol Ports


------+-------------+-----------
+-----------------------------------------------
12 Po12(RU) - Fa0/1(P) Fa0/2(P)

Above, you can see that our port-channel 12 interface is layer 3, and it’s operational. Just like any other layer
3 interface, we can configure an IP address on this port-channel interface:

SW1(config)#interface port-channel 12
SW1(config-if)#ip address 192.168.12.1 255.255.255.0

SW2(config)#interface port-channel 12
SW2(config-if)#ip address 192.168.12.2 255.255.255.0

Let’s see if that works:

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