5. Switch Configuration
=======================
For this section, "switch" refers to whatever system the
bonded devices are directly connected to (i.e., where the other end of
the cable plugs into). This may be an actual dedicated switch device,
or it may be another regular system (e.g., another computer running
Linux),
The active-backup, balance-tlb and balance-alb modes do not
require any specific configuration of the switch.
The 802.3ad mode requires that the switch have the appropriate
ports configured as an 802.3ad aggregation. The precise method used
to configure this varies from switch to switch, but, for example, a
Cisco 3550 series switch requires that the appropriate ports first be
grouped together in a single etherchannel instance, then that
etherchannel is set to mode "lacp" to enable 802.3ad (instead of
standard EtherChannel).
The balance-rr, balance-xor and broadcast modes generally
require that the switch have the appropriate ports grouped together.
The nomenclature for such a group differs between switches, it may be
called an "etherchannel" (as in the Cisco example, above), a "trunk
group" or some other similar variation. For these modes, each switch
will also have its own configuration options for the switch's transmit
policy to the bond. Typical choices include XOR of either the MAC or
IP addresses. The transmit policy of the two peers does not need to
match. For these three modes, the bonding mode really selects a
transmit policy for an EtherChannel group; all three will interoperate
with another EtherChannel group.
