[c-nsp] portchannel load balancing

[Jon Lewis]

We've noticed recently that portchannels between 3550s and 7500s aren't
giving us the level of load sharing (across 2 FE) that we'd like.  Using
the default (src MAC) load balancing, we're seeing the switches send 2/3
of their output traffic over one FE, while the routers actually balance
their output to the switches almost perfectly.

The portchannels are layer 2 and are being used to carry VLAN traffic to
.1q subints on the routers where some are in VRFs for MPLS VPN.  I read
that we might get better load balancing if the portchannels were layer 3
(balancing could be based on src MAC and src/dst IPs), but we need layer 2
to deliver the VLANs.

Can a 3550 have both a layer 3 uplink over which it routes routable
traffic and a layer 2 uplink to the same router over which VLAN traffic
gets sent?

Or is the only/best answer to go ahead and find some GEIP or GEIP+'s...or
add a 3rd FE to the portchannel and hope it takes more away from the
currently prefered FE?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jon Lewis                   |  I route
 Senior Network Engineer     |  therefore you are
 Atlantic Net                |
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