Supported adapters
EtherChannel and IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation are supported on IBM® Power Systems Peripheral Component Interconnect-X (PCI-X) and PCI Express (PCIe) Ethernet adapters.
- Virtual I/O Ethernet AdapterVirtual I/O Ethernet Adapters are supported in only two possible EtherChannel configurations:
- One Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter as the primary, one Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter
as the backup. In this configuration, the Internet Address to Ping attribute
must be enabled so that the EtherChannel can detect remote connectivity failures. For Virtual I/O
Server (VIOS) 2.2.3.0, or later, and AIX Version 7.1 with
Technology Level 3, or later, you can use the virtual Ethernet uplink status feature to detect the
serving VIOS or Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) failure by setting the
poll_uplink attribute of the virtual Ethernet device to
yes. - One supported physical Ethernet adapter as the primary, one Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter as the backup. In this configuration, the Internet Address to Ping attribute must be enabled so that the EtherChannel can detect remote connectivity failures.
- One Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter as the primary, one Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter
as the backup. In this configuration, the Internet Address to Ping attribute
must be enabled so that the EtherChannel can detect remote connectivity failures. For Virtual I/O
Server (VIOS) 2.2.3.0, or later, and AIX Version 7.1 with
Technology Level 3, or later, you can use the virtual Ethernet uplink status feature to detect the
serving VIOS or Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) failure by setting the
poll_uplink attribute of the virtual Ethernet device to
- Host Ethernet Adapter (HEA)
HEA logical ports are supported under EtherChannel if all adapters within the EtherChannel are HEA logical ports. For dedicated HEA port, link aggregation with the PCI/PCI-E adapter is supported. In addition, a PCI/PCI-E and virtual Ethernet adapter as a backup adapter is also supported (when the primary adapter contain HEA).
When using multiple HEA logical ports as primary adapters in an EtherChannel, the physical ports associated with the HEA logical ports must also be placed in an EtherChannel in the Ethernet switch. Consequently, all partitions that use HEA logical ports going to the same HEA physical ports must also be placed in an EtherChannel.
For example, assume that Partition 1 is configured as follows:- A logical HEA port out of physical HEA port 0
- A logical HEA port out of physical HEA port 1
- An EtherChannel created using the logical HEA ports listed above
If another partition on the same system needs to use a logical HEA port out of physical HEA port 0 or out of physical HEA port 1, you must create an EtherChannel for the partition over both of the logical HEA ports, similar to the configuration of Partition 1. Attempting to use either of those logical HEA ports as stand-alone ports in other partitions might cause connectivity problems because packets might not be delivered to the correct logical HEA port.
The restriction does not exist when using logical HEA ports in a Network interface backup configuration (1 primary and 1 backup), because the physical HEA ports do not require specific configuration on the Ethernet switch.Note: If logical ports from physical HEA ports are configured as part of LACP aggregation (802.3ad), then those physical ports must be exclusive to that LPAR. HMC does not prevent the ports from being assigned to other LPARs, but does not support the configuration. - Fibre Channel over Ethernet converged network adapters
Link aggregation between a shared port (a port that is used for both Ethernet and Fiber Channel traffic) and other supported adapters is only supported if the switch that is connected to the shared port can support the link aggregation without impacting the Fiber Channel traffic.
- Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) adaptersLink aggregation with SR-IOV logical ports can be approached by using one of the following methods:
- IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation, also known as Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
- Network Interface Backup (NIB)
- Both LACP and NIB
For network applications where bandwidth of more than a single port is required, IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation can be used to aggregate multiple SR-IOV logical ports. An SR-IOV logical port that is aggregated by using IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation must be the only logical port that is configured for the physical port. Multiple SR-IOV logical ports that are configured for the same physical port, where one of the multiple SR-IOV logical ports is configured to be part of an IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation configuration, might not be managed properly by the switch because more than one LACP partner might be communicating across the physical port. To prevent configuration of a second SR-IOV logical port on the same physical port as SR-IOV logical port in an IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation configuration, the capacity value of the logical port must be set to 100 (100%) when the logical port is configured.
For network applications where bandwidth of less than a single port is required along with protection against a single network failure, SR-IOV logical ports can be a part of NIB configuration. When an SR-IOV logical port is configured as either a primary or backup adapter in an NIB configuration, the physical port can be shared by other SR-IOV logical ports. In this configuration, the Internet Address to Ping attribute can be enabled to detect remote connectivity failures. SR-IOV logical ports can be the primary or backup adapter for another SR-IOV logical port, a virtual Ethernet adapter, or a physical adapter port.
For additional release information about new adapters, see the AIX Release Notes that correspond to your level of AIX.