(Host A one connection session to Host B uses only one NIC). Note: One IP to one IP connections over multiple NICs is not supported. (Host A and B multiple connection sessions to Host C, D, etc) (Host A making two connection sessions to Host B and C) There are a few differences between the two, other than EtherChannel is Cisco proprietary and 802.3ad is an open standard. 802.3ad: EtherChannel and IEEE 802.3ad standards are very similar and accomplish the same goal. Note: LACP is only supported in vSphere 5.1, 5.5 and 6.0 using vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS) or the Cisco Nexus 1000v. For more information on LACP, see the Link Aggregation Control Protocol whitepaper by Cisco. LACP allows a network device to negotiate an automatic bundling of links by sending LACP packets to the peer (directly connected device that also implements LACP). LACP or IEEE 802.3ad: The Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is included in IEEE specification as a method to control the bundling of several physical ports together to form a single logical channel.For additional information on Cisco EtherChannel, see the EtherChannel Introduction by Cisco. EtherChannel: This is a link aggregation (port trunking) method used to provide fault-tolerance and high-speed links between switches, routers, and servers by grouping two to eight physical Ethernet links to create a logical Ethernet link with additional failover links.For more information, see Enabling or disabling LACP on an Uplink Port Group using the vSphere Web Client (2034277). ĞSXi 5.1, 5.5, 6.0 and 6.5 support LACP on vDS only.Prior to vSphere 5.5, when using Virtual Distributed Switches (vDS), each ESXi/ESX host can only have one etherchannel bond configured per vDS. VMware supports only one Etherchannel bond per Virtual Standard Switch (vSS).ĝo not configure standby or unused uplinks with IP HASH load balancing.ĝo not use beacon probing with IP HASH load balancing.For more information, see LACP Support on a vSphere Distributed Switch. In vSphere Distributed Switch 5.5, all load balancing algorithms of LACP are supported. The LACP support in vSphere Distributed Switch 5.1 supports only IP hash load balancing.That way, the service console is not available, but the physical switch management interface is, so you can enable aggregation on the ports involved to restore networking. Ğnabling either Route based on IP hash without 802.3ad aggregation or vice-versa disrupts networking, so you must make the changes to the virtual switch first.Ensure that the participating NICs are connected to the ports configured on the same physical switch. The switch must be set to perform 802.3ad link aggregation in static mode ON and the virtual switch must have its load balancing method set to Route based on IP hash.Link aggregation is never supported on disparate trunked switches.ĞSXi/ESX host only supports NIC teaming on a single physical switch or stacked switches.