Mike Sawicki wrote:
I would use method #2 above.. L3 FEC produces better balancing results as it is flow based, rather than mac-based. I'm not 100% certain that using the SVI interface would not produce a proper balance, but I doubt it. Using method one I would expect only one of the links to be used.
Use method 2 especially if you mean this to be a L3 handoff to the customer.
What Mike states is correct about the layer2 vs layer3 load balancing: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_conf... Understanding Load Balancing EtherChannel balances traffic load across the links in a channel by reducing part of the binary pattern formed from the addresses in the frame to a numerical value that selects one of the links in the channel. EtherChannel load balancing can use either MAC addresses or IP addresses and either source or destination or both source and destination addresses. The selected mode applies to all EtherChannels configured on the switch. Use the option that provides the greatest variety in your configuration. For example, if the traffic on a channel is going only to a single MAC address, using the destination MAC address always chooses the same link in the channel; using source addresses or IP addresses may result in better load balancing. -- Robert Blayzor INOC, LLC rblayzor@inoc.net