I've configured trunking between our two 3560G switches. If the ports are both on the same switch, then the port channel is shown as working. But where there is a port on each switch, one of the ports is shown to be in a w state.


Configs for both switches can be found here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42335010/Trunking%20Problem/rjivsw1-config-31102011-2.txt
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42335010/Trunking%20Problem/rjivsw2-config-31102011-2.txt

Any experts out there that can help?

Thank you.


 

You're trying to do "distributed trunking" - I don't think you can on these. To terminate the two switch ends of a port-channel on two different bits of hardware, you need those two bits of hardware to be stacked. Like 3750s.

I don't quite understand what you are saying here?

You have two switches and you want to connect them together using a layer-2 802.1q port-channel?  If that's the case then it shouldn't be a problem.  As long as all interfaces that you want in the channel are configured identically it should come up.

Andy

No, his diagram is duff - each of what look like links connecting the switches is actually a relationship indicating a link to a server, from both switches.

Ah, ok.  Needs a better diagram...

As Vince said you can't create channels across switches unless they are stacked (i.e. 3750 or 2960S) and appear as one logical switch or Catalyst 6500 VSS.

Andy

Or, an H3C switch from HP. I've forgotten the model number (something like 4500), but they are cheap as chips, and they will do distributed trunking.
I've bought about 8 of these so far, and the first pair of them has been up-and-running for about 6 months, with no problem at all. (Apart a bit too much heat for my liking).
They have 8 big chunky VMWARE boxes on them, attached with 10Gb/s links, supporting who knows how many virtual servers, and when I tested failover between the two switches, they worked almost seamlessly just like a proper port-channel.
  

Thanks a lot VinceWhirlwind, I really appreciate your advice and will have a look at those HP switches when we do infrastructure update next year.

I put another pair in last night. They are 5800s. Not as bad as dealing with Nortel x600s, but you need to follow the manual to get the commands you need. They don't have "show run" for example, they have "display current". Very annoying.