Blog: Cisco FastEtherChannel in FreeBSD

WARNING: This post has been marked as obsolete and may be incorrect. It is kept for archival purposes only. To configure Cisco EtherChannel in FreeBSD 7 is relatively simple.  We will assume interfaces fxp0 and fxp1 are to be configured into a 200mbps Cisco EtherChannel.

First, we have to load the netgraph modules to support this.  Edit /boot/loader.conf and add:

netgraph_load="YES"
ng_socket_load="YES"
ng_fec_load="YES" Copy

Now, the rest of the configuration is done in /etc/rc.conf as follows:

ifconfig_fxp0="up promisc"
ifconfig_fxp1="up promisc"

fec_interfaces="fec0"
fecconfig_fec0="fxp0 fxp1"

ifconfig_fec0="inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0" Copy

Now, this also requires configuration on the Cisco Switch they plug into.  In my configuration, this is a Cisco 3550-24-EMI configured as follows:

interface Port-channel1
  description fec0
  switchport access vlan 100
  switchport mode access
  switchport nonegotiate
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
  description fec0 [1/2]
  switchport access vlan 100
  switchport mode access
  switchport nonegotiate
  channel-group 1 mode on
!
interface FastEthernet0/2
  description fec0 [2/2]
  switchport access vlan 100
  switchport mode access
  switchport nonegotiate
  channel-group 1 mode on Copy

I've been running this configuration for over a year now with no problems at all, and have tested greater than 100mbps speed to it.

Failover Network Interfaces in FreeBSD Interface Renaming in FreeBSD