Bonding multiple NIC's w/ Cisco 3750

Can you check what the groupstate is?

What version of ReadyNAS OS is on the 4220?

Have you contacted support? If so, have you got a case number?

If you haven't got a support case open yet you could give support a call (faster) or if you prefer open an online case at my.netgear.com

If you could reproduce the problem, then download your logs and either attach it to your case (if opened online) or email them to me (http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21543) that would be good.

Version is 6.1.8

If groupstate is the channel-group or etherswitch group, then it is showing in the Cisco configuration as "Static Access" for both "Administrative Mode" and "Operational Mode" for VLAN 124 just like all the other ports.

I hadn't opened a ticket yet. I will in the morning.

I rewound and cleared all LACP, port groups and bonding from both the switch and the ReadyNAS. I rebooted both (actually powering them both off).

I then brought the switch back up, and configured "EtherSwitch.." group 1 by adding port 3 - 6 in LACP mode.

I then brought ReadyNAS back up, and configured the 4 interfaces individually with their own IP's and was able to ping all 4.

I then created a new Bond1 group and added them in. The progress spinner has not gone away in 20 minutes after committing. However, if I open another browser window and go to networking, the Bond1 group shows up with all 4 NIC's in it. But I still can't ping the interface IP.

I sent the logs I have, Thanks.

You may need to get someone who knows Cisco to have a look at your switch. It could be configured incorrectly or may even be incompatible.

Yeah, I was hoping to find someone on this forum that knows both the switch and ReadyNAS settings. No one at my work would know the nuances of ReadyNAS compatibility.

The ReadyNAS docs regarding Bonding modes lists:

IEEE 802.3ad: This option requires the switch or router in front of the ReadyNAS to be configured for dynamic link aggregation – it will not work if the router/switch is configured for static link aggregation

So I'm wondering whether the 3750G supports "dynamic link aggregation" and how does that map to the Cisco terminology.

When I create the Ethernchannel/port-channel, the modes on the 3750 that are available include:

• LACP


• LACP (Passive)


• Desirable


• Auto


• Desirable non-silent


• Auto non-silent


• On(No LACP)

None of the above seem to be specifically related to "static" vs "dynamic" link aggregation and my searches as to whether these switches support dynamic vs static aggregation have been unfruitful....so frustrating.

I have it working. I don't know what item I changed made the difference.

What I did:

• Configured 4 ports (3-6) and port-group 1 (po1) to trunk mode + encapsulation dot1q


• Allowed ALL VLANs


• Set the native VLAN to my assigned VLAN (124)


• rebooted ReadyNAS

After each step above I tried pinging the interface and it only started working after I rebooted. For all I know, it was needing a reboot. But, it could be the port group doesn't tag the VLAN.

I might try setting the mode back to access and rebooting the NAS to see if that works, but I'm afraid to touch it now ... :roll:

Great! Thanks for letting us know.

If I had to pick a suspect, I would say that you had a VLan mismatch between your Cisco device and your NAS, but as already said, Cisco is pretty much a world of its own and depending on your configuration and the configuration of surrounding devices that could be quite complicated to diagnose. VLan mismatch on the NAS and 3750G interfaces would explain the loss of connectivity (since everything would be isolated at layer 2 of the OSI model, so no DHCP, no IP, no ping...).
I'm no Cisco expert (passed CCNA a few years back but didn't practice until recently with my 20€ 1812 bought in a garage sale) but what I can tell you is that trunk ports are used to let multiple VLANs flow through a single port, typically between switches, or between a switch and a router. Access ports are used otherwise. When in doubt I always let the switch decide the VLAN, it should do the tagging for you and you shouldn't have to set anything on your NAS.

As for the light, that's normal that you got amber light for a second or two, that's the time the Switch took to configure the interface, therefore resulting in a wrong port configuration for a moment.

Anyway, glad you worked it out. You know what we say "in computer science, when things should be working, they usually don't ; and when they work nobody knows why.".

Thanks for the note. I rebooted the NAS and things stopped working (not sure why). I'm back to fuddling with it. I started fresh, first trying access mode on the ports. Here is my running-config:

vlan 124 ! interface Port-channel1 switchport access vlan 124 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 124 switchport trunk allowed vlan 124 switchport mode trunk ! interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk allowed vlan 124 switchport mode trunk srr-queue bandwidth share 1 30 35 5 priority-queue out mls qos trust cos auto qos trust macro description cisco-switch spanning-tree link-type point-to-point ! interface GigabitEthernet1/0/3 switchport access vlan 124 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 124 switchport trunk allowed vlan 124 switchport mode access lacp port-priority 1500 channel-group 1 mode active ! interface GigabitEthernet1/0/4 switchport access vlan 124 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 124 switchport trunk allowed vlan 124 switchport mode trunk lacp port-priority 1500 channel-group 1 mode active ! interface GigabitEthernet1/0/5 switchport access vlan 124 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 124 switchport trunk allowed vlan 124 switchport mode trunk lacp port-priority 1500 channel-group 1 mode active ! interface GigabitEthernet1/0/6 switchport access vlan 124 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 124 switchport trunk allowed vlan 124 switchport mode trunk lacp port-priority 1500 channel-group 1 mode active

Something is off because I can't get it to enable again. VLAN's are all the same. I tried going back to 'switchport mode access' with the same effect.

Ok, I'm not an ether channel expert at all but let's see what we can do. I'll try to get the whole picture, tell me if I missed something.

Your NAS is directly connected to your 3750G through ports 3, 4, 5, 6 that are grouped in a single ether channel port called channel-group1 and referred to in your config as interface port-channel1.
I think the 3750G is a layer 3 switch with POE, I assume it provides both DHCP and inter-Vlan routing for your network. If not, how is the routing done ?
Your NAS has all interfaces bound into a single LACP interface and uses DHCP.

What are the VLAN parameters on the NAS ? If you set an IP address can you ping something (you may try to set an IP on your ether channel if possible, just to see if this works without using routing at all) ? Is there Firewalling or ACL on your network that could conflict ?
Since the problem appeared after you reset the NAS and that cisco devices tend to never be rebooted (and I assume nobody touched the config in the meantime), I would think that the problem is on the NAS, but I can't see how this could be the case if your interface is still configured properly.