[c-nsp] General switching question regarding load balancing

[Christopher.Marget at usc-bt.com]

> > If a host has two
> > NICs connected to two switches,(the two switches are connected
> > together) and load balancing between them, switch will see the same 
> > source MAC from two ports.  How does a switch decide which ports to 
> > put in the forwarding table?  Would it switch back and forth every 
> > time there is a packet?  Is there any negative effect on the switch 
> > when that happens?

+1 If this is happening, something is misconfigured.

Some switching platforms (Cat 4K CatOS is one) will stop forwarding the flapping MAC's traffic for some time with each recurrence of the MAC-FLAP notification.

/chris