Introduction
An EtherChannel is a network protocol. This protocol allows you to connect mutliple ports on a switch (to another switch, or server), and have them all function as one. What I mean by this is if you have only 1 port fail, the rest keep the connection going. You would need to have all the ports fail on the etherchannel to have an outage. Think of it as redundant network connections.
How does it work?
EtherChannels have two main protocols, a Cisco Proprietary protocol named PAgP, and LACP (IEEE standard). For PAgP to work, you will need Cisco Devices and PAgP mode set to either Desirable or Auto. For LACP you will need to configure the ports to use Passive or active.
Once these settings have been configured, you should have a functional Channel Deployed. This can be used for switches, but also for:
- Firepower Management Center (firewalls)
- Catalyst Center (CISCO DNA Center)
- CLI
The purpose is to have redundancy incase of a network failure.
Experience
Every big company or office should be using EtherChannels. Incase of an emergency this could save your company lots of time and money. Since this helps with reduncancy, if 1 port fails, you still have back up power.
EtherChannels are very common in the field, so my advive is learn EtherChannels as best as you can. Since this will appear constantly in the world of networking.
Where to learn more??
You can learn more on my guided courses on this page here!
