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mbrtonpye
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LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Thu Mar 10, 2022 5:12 pm

A while back, I bought a CRS328-24P-4S+RM with the intention of using it in my existing network to upgrade an existing 8 port switch (Linksys SLM2008) which has no POE.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to install it until now and I have run into problems, which I am hoping someone here can help with.... PLEASE!

I am using SwitchOS
I have now installed the switch with Port 1 set to be on VLAN10 and the management port set to VLAN10 (and other ports configured also). I am able to connet to the switch admin pages.
Everything is fine, until I connect to the rest of the network.
My connection to the network relies on my Uplink being through a 'Trunk' which consists of 2 CATx copper connections back to an old SMCGS24C-SMART.
I had this working with the Linksys!
The SMC switch is one of many in the network an I have no budget to replace them all at this time.
The SMC switch does not support LACP, it just has this rather vague "Link Aggregation" cum "Bonding" cum "Trunking" processing which I have managed to get to link to a multiport RouterOS router in the past by selecting Balance-rr for the bonding configuration.

With this CRS to SMC configuration, I dont seem to be able to find a way to do this using SwOS which means that I am bringing my entire network down every time I try a different configuration.

Does anyone have an idea for me?
 
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smyers119
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:18 am

did you try a a static lag?
 
holvoetn
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 9:20 am

Simple solution might be to use ROS since you already had it working there ?
Or did I misunderstand that ?
 
mbrtonpye
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:09 am

I've tried static lag but, reading so many posts, I 'think' I understand that SwOS uses Balance-xor?
I was only able to get the SMC swicth to work in static lag configuration using balance-rr
I am really trying to avoid using Router OS as I have to hand over to someone else for support of the switches.
I'm not saying that I have huge knowledge and either experience or ability with ROS, but they have none!
 
holvoetn
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:17 am

I did some quick search on Google and unless I missed it, balance-rr can not be used on Swos. But it can on ROS.
Funny since it is the same HW underneath ...

Hopefully someone more experienced with Swos will chime in with a solution.
 
mbrtonpye
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 12:03 pm

Looks like you have found the same information that I found.

I’m also hoping that someone has a bright idea for me!

Thanks for your input
 
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Hominidae
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:52 pm

I've tried static lag but, reading so many posts, I 'think' I understand that SwOS uses Balance-xor?
I was only able to get the SMC swicth to work in static lag configuration using balance-rr
....I wonder if SwOS/CRS328 will get confused if you'd set balance-rr on the SMC only (so CRS will see the bonded SMC-MAC on two ports) and what effects this would have on up-/downstream traffic over both ports. :?:
 
mbrtonpye
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:48 pm

I haven't got the option to set a bonding protocol on the SMC, I can only set a port to be a trunk and add up to 8 ports to that trunk.
From the fact that I am able to then connect to a RouterOS when I set the bonding on the Router to balance-rr, I am making the 'educated assumption' that the SMC is using balance-rr type bonding but I have been unable to prove that I am actually correct in anything other than a functional way (if that makes sense?).
Simply, the effect is that when I connect the SMC and the CRS when the port on the SMC is set to trunk (one or more ports in the trunk) and the port(s) on the SMC is set to static, is that the network is compromised and my whole network is brought down. I am guessing that I am effectively creating a loop and flooding the network!?!?!
 
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Hominidae
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:14 pm

I haven't got the option to set a bonding protocol on the SMC, I can only set a port to be a trunk and add up to 8 ports to that trunk.
Ah, from your previous posts, I'd actually understood that the other way around, sorry.
I only use ROS on CRS models, so cannot help any further, unfortunately.
 
mbrtonpye
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Sat Mar 12, 2022 12:25 pm

No problem!
I really appreciate that you took the time to help!
 
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:29 am

Just saw the part Bridge Hardware Offloading Chart. I didn't know about that chart till after i purchased and posted..... Bonding disables the HW offloading.. Unless i go with a CRS3xx or CCR model.. I digress i wish MikroTik made it a little easier to disseminate the model list esp for new buyers.
I was just reading on that trunking but no it doesnt support 802.3ad :/ and sophos likes staying on specs

I am certain its hitting the cpu (now) but doesnt explain how its going 400 - 500meg then throttles down to 150 - 180. Also i cant get it to balance... it always draws from only one port at a time. Thought maybe i had missed something that wouldnt allow all the ports to use at the same time. Also during long d/l the speed would just gradually tapper off so I thought it was a misconfig.

Exactly yes interlan speed is mostly also while maintaing full internet speed.. The sophos can handle more throughput and with everything on the network i was thinking a bonded interface would allow enough pipe for sophos to handle the heavy lifting work and then CCR to do the switching.
I know 1gig atm :/ better than some, ;) Sophos does allow for multiple WAN with application load balancing and i have a port left for a Starlink :)

vlans were my next tackle i was just trying to get the pipe flowing properly first. But with these issues. I was thinking of a plan b by segregating the switch into multiple vlans per chip in order to give each switch chip its own trunk :)
 
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mkx
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:33 pm

I did some quick search on Google and unless I missed it, balance-rr can not be used on Swos. But it can on ROS.
Funny since it is the same HW underneath ...
Because balance-rr is done in software.

bonding manual for advanced switches clearly states that "Only 802.3ad and balance-xor bonding modes are hardware offloaded, other bonding modes will use the CPU's resources." And these two modes are available in SwOS as bonding modes (I guess, never used SwOS).
Other devices running ROS ... sure thing, bonding disables HW offload because their basic switch chips simply don't support bonding by them selves. And then quite some devices have single 1Gbps interconnect between CPU and switch chip, so in this case bonding simply can't provide better performance, it can only offer L1 (physical connections a.k.a. cables) redundancy.
 
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mkx
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Re: LAG (Bonding) on CRS328-24P-4S+RM

Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:50 pm

I was just reading on that trunking but no it doesnt support 802.3ad
All ROS devices definitely support 802.3ad. But configuring ROS in general isn't really easy so you might have configured it wrong.

When it comes to different devices:
  • CRS line are switches (when running ROS they have all the routing functionality, but the performance is low). But one has to be careful what's supported in hardware (and thus wirespeed) and what is done by software (and thus slooow).
  • CCR are routers with higher or lower performance figures. It does take some expertise to configure them so that they can perform at highest possible speed. When reading official throughput test results, one has to keep in mind that those are synthetic tests and real-life figures are most of times quite a bit lower.
    Even though the latest devices are beasts (as compared to previous generations), they mostly still can't route and firewall at wire speed. Quite a lot of work was done in ROS v7 to enable certain models route at wire speed (in certain conditions). One definitely get's lots of bang per buck, but top-of-line MT devices can't compare to top-of-line of some renowned vendors (I won't be naming any).

As to bonding and to get expectations into line of reality, this wikipedia article about link aggregation (a more technical term for bonding) explains quite a lot. In short: there are quite a few link aggregation modes (and some have different fine-tuning settings), but only a few combinations actually allow to aggregate bandwidth of all physical connections members of bond for single connection (e.g. file copying over SMB). That's by design and MT isn't doing its job any worse than the rest of vendors.

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