Hi. I’ve recently swapped a rb4011igs+rm for a rb5009ug+s+in both of which use 2 bonded 1 gb/s ports, with 802.3ad, to connect to a mb8600 cable modem. The internet service is 1.2 gb/s (1.4 gb/s provisioned) downstream which I’m able to saturate with multiple streams. The sfp+ port is connected via 10gb/s rj45 to a switch used for the intranet. After experiencing the rb5009 port flapping issue with the bonded connection I was able to add two unmanaged switches, one for each bonded link, as a test. One switch with all 4 connections between the rb5009 and cable modem caused bonding to fail. I assume because of the broadcast of 802.3ad setup and both links seeing each other’s messages.
I then thought it would be neat if I could use a spare hex s and port isolation to replace the two switches with the single hex configured as a switch. I couldn’t get the link to bond in this configuration which I think is due to the hex seeing the 802.3ad broadcasts and responding to them rather than passing them on to the mb8600. The link also doesn’t bond if I only replace one switch with the hex - probably for the same reason. I turned on the packet sniffer and it does look like some of the 802.3ad packets are not passed between the port isolated links.
I also tried setting up bonding on the hex with port isolation. This supports a bonded connection to both the mb8600 and rb5009, but throughput is limited to about 960 mb/s which I assume is caused by going through the hex’s cpu for 802.3ad.
Questions:
- Is it possible with a hex running router os to have router os pass all packets, including the 802.3ad, across the ports? If so, how can I do this? It’s also possible I’m wrong about the reason link bonding fails with the hex.
- Any reason the hex’s internal switch can’t support an aggregate of near 2 gb/s with port isolation?