Intel 4-port ethernet adaptor link aggregation issue

[Joe Moog]

> Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 09:36:30 +0200
> From: Steve Read <steve.read at netasq.com>
> To: freebsd-net at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Intel 4-port ethernet adaptor link aggregation issue
> Message-ID: <51FB617E.2090904 at netasq.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> On 01.08.2013 20:07, Joe Moog wrote:
>> We have an iXsystems 1U server (E5) with an Intel 4-port ethernet NIC installed, model I350-T4 (manufactured May of 2013). We're trying to bind the 4 ports on this NIC together into a single lagg port, connected LACP to a distribution switch (Cisco 4900-series). We are able to successfully bind the 2 on-board ethernet ports to a single lagg, however the NIC is not so cooperative. At first we thought we had a bad NIC, but a replacement has not fixed the issue. We are thinking there may be a driver limitation with these Intel ethernet NICs when attempting to bind more than 2 ports to a lagg.
>> 
>> FreeBSD version:
>> FreeBSD 9.1-PRERELEASE #0 r244125: Wed Dec 12 11:47:47 CST 2012
>> 
>> rc.conf:
>> # LINK AGGREGATION
>> ifconfig_igb2="UP"
>> ifconfig_igb3="UP"
>> ifconfig_igb4="UP"
>> ifconfig_igb5="UP"
>> cloned_interfaces="lagg0"
>> ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto lacp laggport igb2 laggport igb3 laggport igb4 laggport igb5"
>> ifconfig_lagg0="inet 192.168.1.14  netmask 255.255.255.0"
> Am I the only one who noticed that you replaced the value of 
> $ifconfig_lagg0 that specifies the proto and the ports with one that 
> specifies just the address?
> 
> Merge the two ifconfig_lagg0 lines into one, and it will work infinitely 
> better, or at least no worse.
> 
> ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto lacp laggport igb2 laggport igb3 laggport igb4 laggport igb5 inet 192.168.1.14  netmask 255.255.255.0"
> 
> 
> -- Steve
> 

Steve:

We have tried the configuration 3 different ways, all taken directly from examples found in various BSD forums and wikis:
1) Specifying the IP address for the lagg port as seen above (which has worked with other FreeBSD lagg configs for us)
2) Specifying the IP address in line with the "laggproto" config as directed above
3) Using the line ipv4_addrs_lagg0="192.168.1.14/24" in place of the ifconfig_lagg0="inet....." line above

Each option yields the same results -- all will work with a 2-port lagg, but none will enable a lagg with more than 2 ports (igb). FreeBSD doesn't seem to care which one we use.

Thanks

Joe