for the loss of a link by redistributing the load across the remaining links. If a link fails, EtherChannel redirects traffic from the failed link to the remaining links in the channel without intervention. An EtherChannel consists of individual Ethernet links bundled into a single logical link. Figure 1: Typical EtherChannel Configuration Each EtherChannel can consist of up to eight compatibly configured Ethernet ports. Channel Groups and Port-Channel Interfaces An EtherChannel comprises a channel group and a port-channel interface. The channel group binds physical ports to the port-channel interface.
Configuration changes applied to the port-channel interface apply to all the physical ports bound together in the channel group. Figure 2: Relationship Between Physical Ports, a Channel Group, and a Port-Channel Interface The channel-group command binds the physical port and the port-channel interface together. Each EtherChannel has a port-channel logical interface numbered from 1 to 128. This port-channel interface number corresponds to the one specified with the channel-group interface configuration command. Configuring EtherChannels Channel Groups and Port-Channel Interfaces Configuring EtherChannels 2