Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation - MLAG

Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation (MLAG), enables a server or switch with a two-port bond, such as a link aggregation group/LAG, EtherChannel, port group or trunk, to connect those ports to different switches and operate as if they are connected to a single, logical switch. This provides greater redundancy and greater system throughput.

Dual-connected devices can create LACP bonds that contain links to each physical switch. Therefore, active-active links from the dual-connected devices are supported even though they are connected to two different physical switches.

A basic setup looks like this:

}

cumulus@switch:~$ net example clag basic-clag

The two switches, S1 and S2, known as peer switches, cooperate so that they appear as a single device to host H1’s bond. H1 distributes traffic between the two links to S1 and S2 in any way that you configure on the host. Similarly, traffic inbound to H1 can traverse S1 or S2 and arrive at H1.

MLAG Requirements

MLAG has these requirements:

• There must be a direct connection between the two peer switches implementing MLAG (S1 and S2). This is typically a bond for increased reliability and bandwidth.

• There must be only two peer switches in one MLAG configuration, but you can have multiple configurations in a network for switch-to-switch MLAG (see below).

• The peer switches implementing MLAG must be running Cumulus Linux version 2.5 or later.

• You must specify a unique clag-id for every dual-connected bond on each peer switch; the value must be between 1 and 65535 and must be the same on both peer switches in order for the bond to be considered dual-connected.

• The dual-connected devices (servers or switches) can use LACP (IEEE 802.3ad/802.1ax) to form the bond. In this case, the peer switches must also use LACP.

  If for some reason you cannot use LACP, you can also use balance-xor mode to dual-connect host-facing bonds in an MLAG environment. If you do, you must still configure the same clag-id parameter on the MLAG bonds, and it must be the same on both MLAG switches. Otherwise, the MLAG switch pair treats the bonds as if they are single-connected.

More elaborate configurations are also possible. The number of links between the host and the switches can be greater than two, and does not have to be symmetrical:

Additionally, because S1 and S2 appear as a single switch to other bonding devices, you can also connect pairs of MLAG switches to each other in a switch-to-switch MLAG setup:

In this case, L1 and L2 are also MLAG peer switches, and present a two-port bond from a single logical system to S1 and S2. S1 and S2 do the same as far as L1 and L2 are concerned. For a switch-to-switch MLAG configuration, each switch pair must have a unique system MAC address. In the above example, switches L1 and L2 each have the same system MAC address configured. Switch pair S1 and S2 each have the same system MAC address configured; however, it is a different system MAC address than the one used by the switch pair L1 and L2.

LACP and Dual-Connectedness

For MLAG to operate correctly, the peer switches must know which links are dual-connected or are connected to the same host or switch. To do this, specify a clag-id for every dual-connected bond on each peer switch; the clag-id must be the same for the corresponding bonds on both peer switches. Typically, Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), the IEEE standard protocol for managing bonds, is used for verifying dual-connectedness. LACP runs on the dual-connected device and on each of the peer switches. On the dual-connected device, the only configuration requirement is to create a bond that is managed by LACP.

However, if for some reason you cannot use LACP in your environment, you can configure the bonds in balance-xor mode. When using balance-xor mode to dual-connect host-facing bonds in an MLAG environment, you must configure the clag-id parameter on the MLAG bonds, which must be the same on both MLAG switches. Otherwise, the bonds are treated by the MLAG switch pair as if they are single-connected. In short, dual-connectedness is solely determined by matching clag-id and any misconnection will not be detected.

On each of the peer switches, you must place the links that are connected to the dual-connected host or switch in the bond. This is true even if the links are a single port on each peer switch, where each port is placed into a bond, as shown below:

All of the dual-connected bonds on the peer switches have their system ID set to the MLAG system ID. Therefore, from the point of view of the hosts, each of the links in its bond is connected to the same system, and so the host uses both links.

Each peer switch periodically makes a list of the LACP partner MAC addresses for all of their bonds and sends that list to its peer (using the clagd service; see below). The LACP partner MAC address is the MAC address of the system at the other end of a bond (hosts H1, H2, and H3 in the figure above). When a switch receives this list from its peer, it compares the list to the LACP partner MAC addresses on its switch. If any matches are found and the clag-id for those bonds match, then that bond is a dual-connected bond. You can also find the LACP partner MAC address by the running net show bridge macs command or by examining the /sys/class/net/<bondname>/bonding/ad_partner_mac sysfs file for each bond.

Configuring MLAG

To configure MLAG, you need to:

• Create a bond that uses LACP, on the dual-connected devices.
• Configure the interfaces, including bonds, VLANs, bridges and peer links, on each peer switch.

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net show clag verify-vlans
Our Bond Interface   VlanId   Peer Bond Interface
------------------   ------   -------------------
server01                  1   server01           
server01                 10   server01           
server01                 20   server01           
server01                 30   server01           
server01                 40   server01           
server01                 50   server01           
uplink                    1   uplink             
uplink                   10   uplink             
uplink                   20   uplink             
uplink                   30   uplink             
uplink                   40   uplink             
uplink                   50   uplink             
uplink                  100   uplink             
uplink                  101   uplink             
uplink                  102   uplink             
uplink                  103   uplink             
uplink                  104   uplink             
uplink                  105   uplink             
uplink                  106   uplink             
uplink                  107   uplink             
uplink                  108   uplink             
uplink                  109   uplink             
uplink                  110   uplink             
uplink                  111   uplink             
uplink                  112   uplink             
uplink                  113   uplink             
uplink                  114   uplink             
uplink                  115   uplink             
uplink                  116   uplink             
uplink                  117   uplink             
uplink                  118   uplink             
uplink                  119   uplink             
uplink                  120   uplink             
uplink                  121   uplink             
uplink                  122   uplink             
uplink                  123   uplink             
uplink                  124   uplink             
uplink                  125   uplink             
uplink                  126   uplink             
uplink                  127   uplink             
uplink                  128   uplink             
uplink                  129   uplink             
uplink                  130   uplink             
uplink                  131   uplink             
uplink                  132   uplink             
uplink                  133   uplink             
uplink                  134   uplink             
uplink                  135   uplink             
uplink                  136   uplink             
uplink                  137   uplink             
uplink                  138   uplink             
uplink                  139   uplink             
uplink                  140   uplink             
uplink                  141   uplink             
uplink                  142   uplink             
uplink                  143   uplink             
uplink                  144   uplink             
uplink                  145   uplink             
uplink                  146   uplink             
uplink                  147   uplink             
uplink                  148   uplink             
uplink                  149   uplink             
uplink                  150   uplink             
uplink                  151   uplink             
uplink                  152   uplink             
uplink                  153   uplink             
uplink                  154   uplink             
uplink                  155   uplink             
uplink                  156   uplink             
uplink                  157   uplink             
uplink                  158   uplink             
uplink                  159   uplink             
uplink                  160   uplink             
uplink                  161   uplink             
uplink                  162   uplink             
uplink                  163   uplink             
uplink                  164   uplink             
uplink                  165   uplink             
uplink                  166   uplink             
uplink                  167   uplink             
uplink                  168   uplink             
uplink                  169   uplink             
uplink                  170   uplink             
uplink                  171   uplink             
uplink                  172   uplink             
uplink                  173   uplink             
uplink                  174   uplink             
uplink                  175   uplink             
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uplink                  177   uplink             
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uplink                  180   uplink             
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uplink                  183   uplink             
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uplink                  190   uplink             
uplink                  191   uplink             
uplink                  192   uplink             
uplink                  193   uplink             
uplink                  194   uplink             
uplink                  195   uplink             
uplink                  196   uplink             
uplink                  197   uplink             
uplink                  198   uplink             
uplink                  199   uplink             
uplink                  200   uplink          

Reserved MAC Address Range

To prevent MAC address conflicts with other interfaces in the same bridged network, Cumulus Networks has reserved a range of MAC addresses specifically to use with MLAG. This range of MAC addresses is 44:38:39:ff:00:00 to 44:38:39:ff:ff:ff.

Cumulus Networks recommends you use this range of MAC addresses when configuring MLAG.

Configuring the Host or Switch

On your dual-connected device, create a bond that uses LACP. The method you use varies with the type of device you are configuring. The following image is a basic MLAG configuration, showing all the essential elements; a more detailed two-leaf/two-spine configuration is shown below.

Configuring the Interfaces

Place every interface that connects to the MLAG pair from a dual-connected device into a bond, even if the bond contains only a single link on a single physical switch (even though the MLAG pair contains two or more links). Layer 2 data travels over this bond. In the examples throughout this chapter, peerlink is the name of the bond.

Single-attached hosts, also known as orphan ports, can be just a member of the bridge.

Additionally, configure the fast mode of LACP on the bond to allow more timely updates of the LACP state. These bonds are then placed in a bridge, which must include the peer link between the switches.

To enable communication between the clagd services on the peer switches, do the following:

• Choose an unused VLAN (also known as a switched virtual interface or SVI here).
• Assign the SVI an unrouteable link-local address to give the peer switches layer 3 connectivity between each other.
• Configure the VLAN as a VLAN subinterface on the peer link bond rather than the VLAN-aware bridge. Cumulus Networks recommends you use 4094 for the peer link VLAN (peerlink.4094 below) if possible. This ensures that the VLAN is completely independent of the bridge and spanning tree forwarding decisions.
• Include untagged traffic on the peer link, as this avoids issues with STP.
• Avoid using the SVI for BGP peering, as the next-hop, which is the SVI of the peer switch, is not learned over the forwarding database (FDB). You can use a subinterface to bypass the need for FDB learning.
• Optionally, you can specify a backup interface, which is any layer 3 backup interface for your peer links in case the peer link goes down. See below for more information about the backup link.

For example, if peerlink is the inter-chassis bond, and VLAN 4094 is the peer link VLAN, configure peerlink.4094 as follows:

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add bond peerlink bond slaves swp49-50
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 ip address 169.254.1.1/30
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag peer-ip 169.254.1.2
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag backup-ip 192.0.2.50
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:40:94
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net pending
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net commit

auto peerlink
iface peerlink
  bond-slaves swp49 swp50
 
auto peerlink.4094
iface peerlink.4094
  address 169.254.1.1/30
  clagd-peer-ip 169.254.1.2
  clagd-backup-ip 192.0.2.50
  clagd-sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:40:94

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add bridge bridge ports peerlink
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net pending
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net commit

auto bridge
iface bridge
  bridge-ports peerlink
  bridge-vlan-aware yes

Understanding Switch Roles and Setting Priority

Each MLAG-enabled switch in the pair has a role. When the peering relationship is established between the two switches, one switch is put into the primary role, and the other into the secondary role. When an MLAG-enabled switch is in the secondary role, it does not send STP BPDUs on dual-connected links; it only sends BPDUs on single-connected links. The switch in the primary role sends STP BPDUs on all single- and dual-connected links.

By default, the role is determined by comparing the MAC addresses of the two sides of the peering link; the switch with the lower MAC address assumes the primary role. You can override this by setting the clagd-priority option for the peer link:

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag priority 2048
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net pending
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net commit

The switch with the lower priority value is given the primary role; the default value is 32768 and the range is 0 to 65535. Read the clagd(8) and clagctl(8) man pages for more information.

When the clagd service is exited during switch reboot or the service is stopped in the primary switch, the peer switch that is in the secondary role becomes the primary.

However, if the primary switch goes down without stopping the clagd service for any reason, or if the peer link goes down, the secondary switch does not change its role. In case the peer switch is determined to be not alive, the switch in the secondary role rolls back the LACP system ID to be the bond interface MAC address instead of the clagd-sys-mac and the switch in primary role uses the clagd-sys-mac as the LACP system ID on the bonds.

Example MLAG Configuration

The example configuration below configures two bonds for MLAG, each with a single port, a peer link that is a bond with two member ports, and three VLANs on each port.

You configure these interfaces using NCLU, so the bridges are in VLAN-aware mode. The bridges use these Cumulus Linux-specific keywords:

• bridge-vids, which defines the allowed list of tagged 802.1q VLAN IDs for all bridge member interfaces. You can specify non-contiguous ranges with a space-separated list, like
  bridge-vids 100-200 300 400-500.
• bridge-pvid, which defines the untagged VLAN ID for each port. This is commonly referred to as the native VLAN.

The bridge configurations below indicate that each bond carries tagged frames on VLANs 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 100 to 200 (as specified by bridge-vids), but untagged frames on VLAN 1 (as specified by bridge-pvid). Also, take note on how you configure the VLAN subinterfaces used for clagd communication (peerlink.4094 in the sample configuration below). Finally, the host configurations for server01 through server04 are not shown here. The configurations for each corresponding node are almost identical, except for the IP addresses used for managing the clagd service.

The commands to create the configurations for both spines look like the following. Note that the clag-id and clagd-sys-mac must be the same for the corresponding bonds on spine01 and spine02:

spine01 Configuration

cumulus@spine01:~$ net show configuration commands 
net add interface swp1-4 
net add loopback lo ip address 10.0.0.21/32
net add interface eth0 ip address dhcp

These commands create the following configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file:

cumulus@spine01:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
    address 10.0.0.21/32
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 
# downlinks
auto swp1
iface swp1
 
auto swp2
iface swp2
 
auto swp3
iface swp3
 
auto swp4
iface swp4

spine02 Configuration

cumulus@spine02:~$ net show configuration commands 
net add interface swp1-4 
net add loopback lo ip address 10.0.0.22/32
net add interface eth0 ip address dhcp

These commands create the following configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file:

cumulus@spine02:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
    address 10.0.0.22/32
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 
# downlinks
auto swp1
iface swp1
 
auto swp2
iface swp2
 
auto swp3
iface swp3
 
auto swp4
iface swp4

Here is an example configuration for the switches leaf01 through leaf04. Note that the clag-id and clagd-sys-mac must be the same for the corresponding bonds on leaf01 and leaf02 as well as leaf03 and leaf04:

leaf01 Configuration

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net show configuration commands 
net add loopback lo ip address 10.0.0.11/32
net add bgp autonomous-system 65011
net add bgp router-id 10.0.0.11
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 10.0.0.11/32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 10 permit 0.0.0.0/0
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 20 permit 10.0.0.0/24 le 32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 30 permit 172.16.2.0/24
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-out seq 10 permit 172.16.1.0/24
net add bgp neighbor fabric peer-group
net add bgp neighbor fabric remote-as external
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-in in
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-out out
net add bgp neighbor swp51-52 interface peer-group fabric
net add vlan 100 ip address 172.16.1.1/24
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 172.16.1.1/24
net add clag peer sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:01 interface swp49-50 primary backup-ip 192.168.1.12
net add clag port bond server1 interface swp1 clag-id 1
net add clag port bond server2 interface swp2 clag-id 2
net add bond server1-2 bridge access 100
net add bond server1-2 stp portadminedge
net add bond server1-2 stp bpduguard

These commands create the following configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file:

cumulus@leaf01:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
    address 10.0.0.11/32
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 
auto swp1
iface swp1
 
auto swp2
iface swp2
 
# peerlink
auto swp49
iface swp49
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
auto swp50
iface swp50
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
# uplinks
auto swp51
iface swp51
 
auto swp52
iface swp52
 
# bridge to hosts
auto bridge
iface bridge
    bridge-ports peerlink server1 server2
    bridge-vids 100
    bridge-vlan-aware yes
 
auto peerlink
iface peerlink
    bond-slaves swp49 swp50
 
auto peerlink.4094
iface peerlink.4094
    address 169.254.1.1/30
    clagd-backup-ip 192.168.1.12
    clagd-peer-ip 169.254.1.2
    clagd-priority 1000
    clagd-sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:01
 
auto server1
iface server1
    bond-slaves swp1
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 1
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto server2
iface server2
    bond-slaves swp2
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 2
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto vlan100
iface vlan100
    address 172.16.1.1/24
    vlan-id 100
    vlan-raw-device bridge

leaf02 Configuration

cumulus@leaf02:~$ net show conf commands 
net add loopback lo ip address 10.0.0.12/32
net add bgp autonomous-system 65012
net add bgp router-id 10.0.0.12
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 10.0.0.12/32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 10 permit 0.0.0.0/0
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 20 permit 10.0.0.0/24 le 32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 30 permit 172.16.2.0/24
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-out seq 10 permit 172.16.1.0/24
net add bgp neighbor fabric peer-group
net add bgp neighbor fabric remote-as external
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-in in
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-out out
net add bgp neighbor swp51-52 interface peer-group fabric
net add vlan 100 ip address 172.16.1.2/24
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 172.16.1.2/24
net add clag peer sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:01 interface swp49-50 secondary backup-ip 192.168.1.11
net add clag port bond server1 interface swp1 clag-id 1
net add clag port bond server2 interface swp2 clag-id 2
net add bond server1-2 bridge access 100
net add bond server1-2 stp portadminedge
net add bond server1-2 stp bpduguard

These commands create the following configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file:

cumulus@leaf02:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
    address 10.0.0.12/32
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 
auto swp1
iface swp1
 
auto swp2
iface swp2
 
# peerlink
auto swp49
iface swp49
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
auto swp50
iface swp50
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
# uplinks
auto swp51
iface swp51
 
auto swp52
iface swp52
 
# bridge to hosts
auto bridge
iface bridge
    bridge-ports peerlink server1 server2
    bridge-vids 100
    bridge-vlan-aware yes
 
auto peerlink
iface peerlink
    bond-slaves swp49 swp50
 
auto peerlink.4094
iface peerlink.4094
    address 169.254.1.2/30
    clagd-backup-ip 192.168.1.11
    clagd-peer-ip 169.254.1.1
    clagd-sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:01
 
auto server1
iface server1
    bond-slaves swp1
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 1
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto server2
iface server2
    bond-slaves swp2
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 2
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto vlan100
iface vlan100
    address 172.16.1.2/24
    vlan-id 100
    vlan-raw-device bridge

leaf03 Configuration

cumulus@leaf03:~$ net show conf commands 
net add loopback lo ip address 10.0.0.13/32
net add bgp autonomous-system 65013
net add bgp router-id 10.0.0.13
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 10.0.0.13/32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 10 permit 0.0.0.0/0
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 20 permit 10.0.0.0/24 le 32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 30 permit 172.16.2.0/24
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-out seq 10 permit 172.16.1.0/24
net add bgp neighbor fabric peer-group
net add bgp neighbor fabric remote-as external
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-in in
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-out out
net add bgp neighbor swp51-52 interface peer-group fabric
net add vlan 100 ip address 172.16.1.3/24
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 172.16.1.3/24
net add clag peer sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:02 interface swp49-50 primary backup-ip 192.168.1.14
net add clag port bond server3 interface swp1 clag-id 3
net add clag port bond server4 interface swp2 clag-id 4
net add bond server3-4 bridge access 100
net add bond server3-4 stp portadminedge
net add bond server3-4 stp bpduguard

These commands create the following configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file:

cumulus@leaf03:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
    address 10.0.0.13/32
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 
auto swp1
iface swp1
 
auto swp2
iface swp2
 
# peerlink
auto swp49
iface swp49
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
auto swp50
iface swp50
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
# uplinks
auto swp51
iface swp51
 
auto swp52
iface swp52
 
# bridge to hosts
auto bridge
iface bridge
    bridge-ports peerlink server3 server4
    bridge-vids 100
    bridge-vlan-aware yes
 
auto peerlink
iface peerlink
    bond-slaves swp49 swp50
 
auto peerlink.4094
iface peerlink.4094
    address 169.254.1.1/30
    clagd-backup-ip 192.168.1.14
    clagd-peer-ip 169.254.1.2
    clagd-priority 1000
    clagd-sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:02
 
auto server3
iface server3
    bond-slaves swp1
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 3
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto server4
iface server4
    bond-slaves swp2
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 4
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto vlan100
iface vlan100
    address 172.16.1.3/24
    vlan-id 100
    vlan-raw-device bridge

leaf04 Configuration

cumulus@leaf04:~$ net show configuration commands 
net add loopback lo ip address 10.0.0.14/32
net add bgp autonomous-system 65014
net add bgp router-id 10.0.0.14
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 10.0.0.14/32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 10 permit 0.0.0.0/0
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 20 permit 10.0.0.0/24 le 32
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-in seq 30 permit 172.16.2.0/24
net add routing prefix-list ipv4 dc-leaf-out seq 10 permit 172.16.1.0/24
net add bgp neighbor fabric peer-group
net add bgp neighbor fabric remote-as external
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-in in
net add bgp ipv4 unicast neighbor fabric prefix-list dc-leaf-out out
net add bgp neighbor swp51-52 interface peer-group fabric
net add vlan 100 ip address 172.16.1.4/24
net add bgp ipv4 unicast network 172.16.1.4/24
net add clag peer sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:02 interface swp49-50 secondary backup-ip 192.168.1.13
net add clag port bond server3 interface swp1 clag-id 3
net add clag port bond server4 interface swp2 clag-id 4
net add bond server3-4 bridge access 100
net add bond server3-4 stp portadminedge
net add bond server3-4 stp bpduguard

These commands create the following configuration in the /etc/network/interfaces file:

cumulus@leaf04:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
    address 10.0.0.14/32
 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 
auto swp1
iface swp1
 
auto swp2
iface swp2
 
# peerlink
auto swp49
iface swp49
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
auto swp50
iface swp50
    post-up ip link set $IFACE promisc on     # Only required on VX
 
# uplinks
auto swp51
iface swp51
 
auto swp52
iface swp52
 
# bridge to hosts
auto bridge
iface bridge
    bridge-ports peerlink server3 server4
    bridge-vids 100
    bridge-vlan-aware yes
 
auto peerlink
iface peerlink
    bond-slaves swp49 swp50
 
auto peerlink.4094
iface peerlink.4094
    address 169.254.1.2/30
    clagd-backup-ip 192.168.1.13
    clagd-peer-ip 169.254.1.1
    clagd-sys-mac 44:38:39:FF:00:02
 
auto server3
iface server3
    bond-slaves swp1
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 3
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto server4
iface server4
    bond-slaves swp2
    bridge-access 100
    clag-id 4
    mstpctl-bpduguard yes
    mstpctl-portadminedge yes
 
auto vlan100
iface vlan100
    address 172.16.1.4/24
    vlan-id 100
    vlan-raw-device bridge

Disabling clagd on an Interface

In the configurations above, the clagd-peer-ip and clagd-sys-mac parameters are mandatory, while the rest are optional. When mandatory clagd commands are present under a peer link subinterface, by default clagd-enable is set to yes and does not need to be specified; to disable clagd on the subinterface, set clagd-enable to no:

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag enable no 
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

Use clagd-priority to set the role of the MLAG peer switch to primary or secondary. Each peer switch in an MLAG pair must have the same clagd-sys-mac setting. Each clagd-sys-mac setting must be unique to each MLAG pair in the network. For more details, refer to man clagd.

Checking the MLAG Configuration Status

You can check the status of your MLAG configuration using the net show clag command.

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net show clag 
The peer is alive
    Peer Priority, ID, and Role: 4096 44:38:39:FF:00:01 primary
     Our Priority, ID, and Role: 8192 44:38:39:FF:00:02 secondary
          Peer Interface and IP: peerlink.4094 169.254.1.1 
                      Backup IP: 192.168.1.12 (inactive)
                     System MAC: 44:38:39:FF:00:01
 
 
CLAG Interfaces
Our Interface      Peer Interface     CLAG Id   Conflicts              Proto-Down Reason
----------------   ----------------   -------   --------------------   -----------------
         server1   server1            1         -                      -              
         server2   server2            2         -                      -      

Using the clagd Command Line Interface

A command line utility called clagctl is available for interacting with a running clagd service to get status or alter operational behavior. For a detailed explanation of the utility, refer to the clagctl(8)man page.

The peer is alive
    Peer Priority, ID, and Role: 4096 44:38:39:FF:00:01 primary
     Our Priority, ID, and Role: 8192 44:38:39:FF:00:02 secondary
          Peer Interface and IP: peerlink.4094 169.254.1.1 
                      Backup IP: 192.168.1.12 (inactive)
                     System MAC: 44:38:39:FF:00:01
CLAG Interfaces
Our Interface      Peer Interface     CLAG Id   Conflicts              Proto-Down Reason
----------------   ----------------   -------   --------------------   -----------------
         server1   server1            1         -                      -              
         server2   server2            2         -                      - 

Configuring MLAG with a Traditional Mode Bridge

You can configure MLAG with a bridge in traditional mode instead of VLAN-aware mode.

To configure MLAG with a traditional mode bridge, the peer link and all dual-connected links must be configured as untagged/native ports on a bridge (note the absence of any VLANs in the bridge-ports line and the lack of the bridge-vlan-aware parameter below):

auto br0
iface br0
  bridge-ports peerlink spine1-2 host1 host2

The following example shows you how to allow VLAN 100 across the peer link:

auto br0.100
iface br0.100
  bridge-ports peerlink.100 bond1.100
  bridge-stp on

For a deeper comparison of traditional versus VLAN-aware bridge modes, read this knowledge base article.

Peer Link Interfaces and the protodown State

In addition to the standard UP and DOWN administrative states, an interface that is a member of an MLAG bond can also be in a protodown state. When MLAG detects a problem that might result in connectivity issues such as traffic black-holing or a network meltdown if the link carrier was left in an UP state, it can put that interface into protodown state. Such connectivity issues include:

• When the peer link goes down but the peer switch is up (that is, the backup link is active).
• When the bond is configured with an MLAG ID, but the clagd service is not running (whether it was deliberately stopped or simply died).
• When an MLAG-enabled node is booted or rebooted, the MLAG bonds are placed in a protodown state until the node establishes a connection to its peer switch, or five minutes have elapsed.

When an interface goes into a protodown state, it results in a local OPER DOWN (carrier down) on the interface. As of Cumulus Linux 2.5.5, the protodown state can be manipulated with the ip link set command. Given its use in preventing network meltdowns, manually manipulating protodown is not recommended outside the scope of interaction with the Cumulus Networks support team.

The following ip link show command output shows an interface in protodown state. Notice that the link carrier is down (NO-CARRIER):

cumulus@switch:~$ net show bridge link swp1
3: swp1 state DOWN: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,MASTER,UP> mtu 9216 master pfifo_fast master host-bond1 state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 500 protodown on
   link/ether 44:38:39:00:69:84 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Specifying a Backup Link

You can specify a backup link for your peer links in case the peer link goes down. When this happens, the clagd service uses the backup link to check the health of the peer switch. To configure a backup link, add clagd-backup-ip <ADDRESS> to the peer link configuration:

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag backup-ip 192.0.2.50
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag args --backupPort 5400
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

cumulus@spine01:~$ net show clag 
The peer is alive
     Our Priority, ID, and Role: 32768 44:38:39:00:00:41 primary
    Peer Priority, ID, and Role: 32768 44:38:39:00:00:42 secondary
          Peer Interface and IP: peerlink.4094 169.254.255.2
                      Backup IP: 192.168.0.22 (active)
                     System MAC: 44:38:39:FF:40:90
 
CLAG Interfaces
Our Interface      Peer Interface     CLAG Id   Conflicts              Proto-Down Reason
----------------   ----------------   -------   --------------------   -----------------
       leaf03-04   leaf03-04          1034      -                      -              
       exit01-02   -                  2930      -                      -              
       leaf01-02   leaf01-02          1012      -                      -

Specifying a Backup Link to a VRF

You can configure the backup link to a VRF or management VRF. Include the name of the VRF or management VRF with the clagd-backup-ipcommand. Here is a sample configuration:

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag backup-ip 192.168.0.22 vrf mgmt
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net show clag backup-ip 
Backup info:
IP: 192.168.0.12; State: active; Role: primary
Peer priority and id: 32768 44:38:39:00:00:12; Peer role: secondary          

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net show configuration
 
...
 
auto swp52s0
iface swp52s0
    address 192.0.2.1/24
    vrf green
 
auto green
iface green
    vrf-table auto
 
auto peer5.4000
iface peer5.4000
        address 192.0.2.15/24
        clagd-peer-ip 192.0.2.16
        clagd-backup-ip 192.0.2.2 vrf green
        clagd-sys-mac 44:38:39:01:01:01    
...

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net show clag status verbose
The peer is alive
    Peer Priority, ID, and Role: 32768 00:02:00:00:00:13 primary
     Our Priority, ID, and Role: 32768 c4:54:44:f6:44:5a secondary
          Peer Interface and IP: peer5.4000 192.0.2.16
                      Backup IP: 192.0.2.2 vrf green (active)
                     System MAC: 44:38:39:01:01:01
 
CLAG Interfaces
Our Interface      Peer Interface     CLAG Id   Conflicts              Proto-Down Reason
----------------   ----------------   -------   --------------------   -----------------
           bond4   bond4              4         -                      -              
           bond1   bond1              1         -                      -              
           bond2   bond2              2         -                      -              
           bond3   bond3              3         -                      -     
 
...

Monitoring Dual-Connected Peers

Upon receipt of a valid message from its peer, the switch knows that clagd is alive and executing on that peer. This causes clagd to change the system ID of each bond that is assigned a clag-id from the default value (the MAC address of the bond) to the system ID assigned to both peer switches. This makes the hosts connected to each switch act as if they are connected to the same system so that they use all ports within their bond. Additionally, clagd determines which bonds are dual-connected and modifies the forwarding and learning behavior to accommodate these dual-connected bonds.

If the peer does not receive any messages for three update intervals, then that peer switch is assumed to no longer be acting as an MLAG peer. In this case, the switch reverts all configuration changes so that it operates as a standard non-MLAG switch. This includes removing all statically assigned MAC addresses, clearing the egress forwarding mask, and allowing addresses to move from any port to the peer port. After a message is again received from the peer, MLAG operation starts again as described earlier. You can configure a custom timeout setting by adding --peerTimeout <VALUE> to clagd-args, like this:

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag args --peerTimeout 900
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

After bonds are identified as dual-connected, clagd sends more information to the peer switch for those bonds. The MAC addresses (and VLANs) that are dynamically learned on those ports are sent along with the LACP partner MAC address for each bond. When a switch receives MAC address information from its peer, it adds MAC address entries on the corresponding ports. As the switch learns and ages out MAC addresses, it informs the peer switch of these changes to its MAC address table so that the peer can keep its table synchronized. Periodically, at 45% of the bridge ageing time, a switch sends its entire MAC address table to the peer, so that peer switch can verify that its MAC address table is properly synchronized.

The switch sends an update frequency value in the messages to its peer, which tells clagd how often the peer will send these messages. You can configure a different frequency by adding --lacpPoll <SECONDS> to clagd-args:

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add interface peerlink.4094 clag args --lacpPoll 900
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

Configuring Layer 3 Routed Uplinks

In this scenario, the spine switches connect at layer 3, as shown in the image below. Alternatively, the spine switches can be singly connected to each core switch at layer 3 (not shown below).

In this design, the spine switches route traffic between the server hosts in the layer 2 domains and the core. The servers (host1 thru host4) each have a layer 2 connection up to the spine layer where the default gateway for the host subnets resides. However, since the spine switches as gateway devices communicate at layer 3, you need to configure a protocol such as VRR (Virtual Router Redundancy) between the spine switch pair to support active/active forwarding.

Then, to connect the spine switches to the core switches, you need to determine whether the routing is static or dynamic. If it is dynamic, you must choose which protocol - OSPF or BGP - to use. When enabling a routing protocol in an MLAG environment, it is also necessary to manage the uplinks, because by default MLAG is not aware of layer 3 uplink interfaces. In the event of a peer link failure, MLAG does not remove static routes or bring down a BGP or OSPF adjacency unless a separate link state daemon such as ifplugd is used.

IGMP Snooping with MLAG

IGMP snooping processes IGMP reports received on a bridge port in a bridge to identify hosts that are configured to receive multicast traffic destined to that group. An IGMP query message received on a port is used to identify the port that is connected to a router and configured to receive multicast traffic.

IGMP snooping is enabled by default on the bridge. IGMP snooping multicast database entries and router port entries are synced to the peer MLAG switch. If there is no multicast router in the VLAN, you can configure the IGMP querier on the switch to generate IGMP query messages. For more information, read the IGMP and MLD Snooping chapter.

Monitoring the Status of the clagd Service

Due to the critical nature of the clagd service, systemd continuously monitors the status of clagd. systemd monitors the clagd service through the use of notify messages every 30 seconds. If the clagd service dies or becomes unresponsive for any reason and systemd receives no messages after 60 seconds, systemd restarts clagd. systemd logs these failures in /var/log/syslog, and, on the first failure, generates a cl-support file as well.

This monitoring is automatically configured and enabled as long as clagd is enabled (that is, clagd-peer-ip and clagd-sys-mac are configured for an interface) and the clagd service is running. When clagd is explicitly stopped, for example with the systemctl stop clagd.service command, monitoring of clagd is also stopped.

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo cl-service-summary summary
The systemctl daemon 5.4 uptime: 15m
 
...
 
Service clagd        enabled    active 
 
...

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo systemctl status clagd.service 
● clagd.service - Cumulus Linux Multi-Chassis LACP Bonding Daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/clagd.service; enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2016-10-03 20:31:50 UTC; 4 days ago
     Docs: man:clagd(8)
 Main PID: 1235 (clagd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/clagd.service
           ├─1235 /usr/bin/python /usr/sbin/clagd --daemon 169.254.255.2 peerlink.4094 44:38:39:FF:40:90 --prior...
           └─1307 /sbin/bridge monitor fdb
 
 
Feb 01 23:19:30 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Cleanup is executing.
Feb 01 23:19:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Cleanup is finished
Feb 01 23:19:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Beginning execution of clagd version 1.3.0
Feb 01 23:19:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Invoked with: /usr/sbin/clagd --daemon 169.254.255.2 peerlink.4094 44:38:39:FF:40:94 --pri...168.0.12
Feb 01 23:19:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Role is now secondary
Feb 01 23:19:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Initial config loaded
Feb 01 23:19:31 leaf01 systemd[1]: Started Cumulus Linux Multi-Chassis LACP Bonding Daemon.
Feb 01 23:24:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: HealthCheck: reload timeout.
Feb 01 23:24:31 leaf01 clagd[1717]: Role is now primary; Reload timeout
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

MLAG Best Practices

For MLAG to function properly, you must configure the dual-connected host interfaces identically on the pair of peering switches. See the note above in the Configuring MLAG section.

Understanding MTU in an MLAG Configuration

The MTU in MLAG traffic is determined by the bridge MTU. Bridge MTU is determined by the lowest MTU setting of an interface that is a member of the bridge. If you want to set an MTU other than the default of 1500 bytes, you must configure the MTU on each physical interface and bond interface that are members of the MLAG bridges in the entire bridged domain.

For example, if an MTU of 9216 is desired through the MLAG domain in the example shown above, on all four leaf switches, configure mtu 9216 for each of the following bond interfaces, as they are members of bridge bridge: peerlink, uplink, server01.

cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add bond peerlink mtu 9216
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add bond uplink mtu 9216
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net add bond server01 mtu 9216
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net pending
cumulus@leaf01:~$ net commit

auto bridge
iface bridge
  bridge-ports peerlink uplink server01
 
 
auto peerlink
iface peerlink
    mtu 9216
 
auto server01
iface server01
    mtu 9216
 
auto uplink
iface uplink
    mtu 9216

cumulus@spine01:~$ net add bond leaf01-02 mtu 9216
cumulus@spine01:~$ net add bond leaf03-04 mtu 9216
cumulus@spine01:~$ net add bond exit01-02 mtu 9216
cumulus@spine01:~$ net add bond peerlink mtu 9216
cumulus@spine01:~$ net pending
cumulus@spine01:~$ net commit

auto bridge
iface bridge
  bridge-ports leaf01-02 leaf03-04 exit01-02 peerlink
 
 
auto exit01-02
iface exit01-02
    mtu 9216
 
auto leaf01-02
iface leaf01-02
    mtu 9216
 
auto leaf03-04
iface leaf03-04
    mtu 9216
 
 
auto peerlink
iface peerlink
    mtu 9216

Sizing the Peerlink

The peerlink carries very little traffic when compared to the bandwidth consumed by dataplane traffic. In a typical MLAG configuration, most every connection between the two switches in the MLAG pair is dual-connected, so the only traffic going across the peerlink is traffic from the clagd process and some LLDP or LACP traffic; the traffic received on the peerlink is not forwarded out of the dual-connected bonds.

However, there are some instances where a host is connected to only one switch in the MLAG pair; for example:

• You have a hardware limitation on the host where there is only one PCIE slot, and therefore, one NIC on the system, so the host is only single-connected across that interface.
• The host does not support 802.3ad and you cannot create a bond on it.
• You are accounting for a link failure, where the host may become single connected until the failure is rectified.

In general, you need to determine how much bandwidth is traveling across the single-connected interfaces, and allocate half of that bandwidth to the peerlink. We recommend half of the single-connected bandwidth because, on average, one half of the traffic destined to the single-connected host arrives on the switch directly connected to the single-connected host and the other half arrives on the switch that is not directly connected to the single-connected host. When this happens, only the traffic that arrives on the switch that is not directly connected to the single-connected host needs to traverse the peerlink, which is how you calculate 50% of the traffic.

In addition, you might want to add extra links to the peerlink bond to handle link failures in the peerlink bond itself.

In the illustration below, each host has two 10G links, with each 10G link going to each switch in the MLAG pair. Each host has 20G of dual-connected bandwidth, so all three hosts have a total of 60G of dual-connected bandwidth. We recommend you allocate at least 15G of bandwidth to each peerlink bond, which represents half of the single-connected bandwidth.

Scaling this example out to a full rack, when planning for link failures, you need only allocate enough bandwidth to meet your site’s strategy for handling failure scenarios. Imagine a full rack with 40 servers and two switches. You might plan for four to six servers to lose connectivity to a single switch and become single connected before you respond to the event. So expanding upon our previous example, if you have 40 hosts each with 20G of bandwidth dual-connected to the MLAG pair, you might allocate 20G to 30G of bandwidth to the peerlink - which accounts for half of the single-connected bandwidth for four to six hosts.

STP Interoperability with MLAG

Cumulus Networks recommends that you always enable STP in your layer 2 network.

With MLAG, Cumulus Networks recommends you enable BPDU guard on the host-facing bond interfaces. For more information about BPDU guard, see BPDU Guard.

cumulus@switch:~$ net show bridge spanning-tree
bridge:peerlink CIST info
  enabled            yes                     role                 Designated
  port id            8.002                   state                forwarding
  ..............
  bpdufilter port    no                     
  clag ISL           yes                     clag ISL Oper UP     yes
  clag role          primary                 clag dual conn mac   00:00:00:00:00:00
  clag remote portID F.FFF                   clag system mac      44:38:39:FF:40:90

Best Practices for STP with MLAG

• The STP global configuration must be the same on both the switches.

• The STP configuration for dual-connected ports should be the same on both peer switches.

• The STP priority must be the same on both peer switches. You set the priority with this command:

  cumulus@switch:~$ net add bridge stp treeprio PRIORITY_VALUE
  cumulus@switch:~$ net commit
  

• Use NCLU (net) commands for all spanning tree configurations, including bridge priority, path cost and so forth. Do not use brctl commands for spanning tree, except for brctl stp on/off, as changes are not reflected to mstpd and can create conflicts.

Troubleshooting MLAG

Viewing the MLAG Log File

By default, when clagd is running, it logs its status to the /var/log/clagd.log file and syslog. Example log file output is below:

cumulus@spine01:~$ sudo tail /var/log/clagd.log 
2016-10-03T20:31:50.471400+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: Initial config loaded
2016-10-03T20:31:52.479769+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: The peer switch is active.
2016-10-03T20:31:52.496490+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: Initial data sync to peer done.
2016-10-03T20:31:52.540186+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: Role is now primary; elected
2016-10-03T20:31:54.250572+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: HealthCheck: role via backup is primary
2016-10-03T20:31:54.252642+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: HealthCheck: backup active
2016-10-03T20:31:54.537967+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: Initial data sync from peer done.
2016-10-03T20:31:54.538435+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: Initial handshake done.
2016-10-03T20:31:58.527464+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: leaf03-04 is now dual connected.
2016-10-03T22:47:35.255317+00:00 spine01 clagd[1235]: leaf01-02 is now dual connected.

Large Packet Drops on the Peerlink Interface

A large volume of packet drops across one of the peerlink interfaces can be expected. These drops serve to prevent looping of BUM (broadcast, unknown unicast, multicast) packets. When a packet is received across the peerlink, if the destination lookup results in an egress interface that is a dual-connected bond, the switch does not forward the packet to prevent loops. This results in a drop being recorded on the peerlink.

You can detect this issue by running the net show counters or ethtool -S <interface> command.

Using NCLU, the number of dropped packets is displayed in the RX_DRP column when you run net show counters:

cumulus@switch:~$ net show counters 
 
Kernel Interface table
Iface              MTU    Met    RX_OK    RX_ERR    RX_DRP    RX_OVR    TX_OK    TX_ERR    TX_DRP    TX_OVR  Flg
---------------  -----  -----    -------  --------  --------  --------  -------  --------  --------  ------  -----
peerlink        1500       0      19226721     0      2952460  0       55115330     0       364      0       BMmRU
peerlink.4094   1500       0      0            0      0        0       5379243      0       0        0       BMRU
swp51           1500       0      6587220      0      2129676  0       38957769     0       202      0       BMsRU
swp52           1500       0      12639501     0      822784   0       16157561     0       162      0       BMsRU

When you run ethtool -S on a peerlink interface, the drops are indicated by the HwIfInDiscards counter:

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo ethtool -S swp51
NIC statistics:
HwIfInOctets: 669507330
HwIfInUcastPkts: 658871
HwIfInBcastPkts: 2231559
HwIfInMcastPkts: 3696790
HwIfOutOctets: 2752224343
HwIfOutUcastPkts: 1001632
HwIfOutMcastPkts: 3743199
HwIfOutBcastPkts: 34212938
HwIfInDiscards: 2129675

Duplicate LACP Partner MAC Warning

When you run clagctl, you may see output like this:

bond01 bond01 52 duplicate lacp - partner mac

This occurs when you have multiple LACP bonds between the same two LACP endpoints - for example, an MLAG switch pair is one endpoint and an ESXi host is another. These bonds have duplicate LACP identifiers, which are MAC addresses. This same warning could be triggered when you have a cabling or configuration error.

Caveats and Errata

• If both the backup and peer connectivity are lost within a 30-second window, the switch in the secondary role misinterprets the event sequence, believing the peer switch is down, so it takes over as the primary.
• MLAG is disabled on the chassis, including the Facebook Backpack and EdgeCore OMP-800.