[c-nsp] port channel numbering schemes

[Geoffrey Pendery]

I think there's definitely value in putting some thought into any
numbering/naming scheme you use anywhere, but the answer you come up
with will depend on your organization and the situation.

If you have excellent documentation systems which are quick and easy
to use and always kept up to date, then I would say just serialize
them (first port-channel you ever set up is 1, the 37th you set up is
37) then whenever someone is servicing or troubleshooting that
connection they can just plug it into the doc system and get whatever
information is useful about it (which closet it connects and which
VLANs it carries, in your case)

For those less fortunate with documentation, it might be helpful for
the name of the LAG to have some descriptive value.  If you do not
have CDP enabled in most places, then troubleshooting a device with
LAG issues you might first want to know where that LAG goes, so you
could use a locally significant scheme like "Port1 is the primary
uplink to upstream device, Port2 is a secondary uplink where
applicable, Port 3 is always the sideways link between an A/B pair,
etc"

If you have CDP (or LLDP, or whatever) in place and identifying "where
does this port go" is not a regular issue, then it might be more
helpful to have the numbers be globally unique and identify it's place
or role in the network - say "Port 100-199 connects to closet 1, Port
200-299 connects to closet 2, Port X01 is the primary uplink, X02 is
the secondary" so when an alarm goes off for Port202, you immediately
recognize that's the secondary uplink from Closet 2.

Of course if your network is only 10 nodes, maybe it's a waste to
bother with the scheme at all, just pick something an everyone will
remember it.

Up to you what you choose, but I'd definitely put thought into any
naming scheme before you roll it out, as it will likely be with you
for a long time.

-Geoff


On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 8:16 AM, chris stand <cstand141 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>  Anyone use clever port channel numbering schemes ?
>
> We have a number of facilities that have access closets that connect
> either directly to a 7K or the access closets connect to 5Ks which
> then connect to the 7Ks.
>
> I have co-workers who want to take a trunk that might be carrying vlan
> 1300,1302,1304 and make the port channel 1300.
> The next closet might have vlan 1306,08,10,12.14,16 so its port channel is 1306
> The next closet might have vlan 1318, 1320 so ... po 1318
>
> While this seems to have some value in terms of identifying .something
> ... I don';t think I have ever encountered such a scheme that does not
> seem to be flexible for moves/add/changes in terms of addressing.
>
> I want to use po10, po11, po12, po13,po14 like we have on every other
> device up until now and put the appropriate vlans in the correct port
> channels.
>
> thoughts/ideas/concerns
>
> ???
>
> Thanks,
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