A Link Aggregation, or EtherChannel, device is a network port-aggregation technology that allows several Ethernet adapters to be aggregated, which enables them to act as a single Ethernet device. It helps provide more throughput over a single IP address than would be possible with a single Ethernet adapter.
For example, ent0 and ent1 can be aggregated to ent3. The system considers these aggregated adapters as one adapter, and all adapters in the Link Aggregation device are given the same hardware address, so they are treated by remote systems as if they are one adapter.
Link Aggregation can help provide more redundancy because individual links might fail, and the Link Aggregation device will fail over to another adapter in the device to maintain connectivity. For example, in the previous example, if ent0 fails, the packets are automatically sent on the next available adapter, ent1, without disruption to existing user connections. ent0 automatically returns to service on the Link Aggregation device when it recovers.
You can configure a Shared Ethernet Adapter to use a Link Aggregation, or EtherChannel, device as the physical adapter.
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