Enterasys Network Switch Bonding Mode – Part 1

I will briefly talk about what Enterasys Bonding mode is and how to do it, but first I will explain the working structure of Bonding mode. It is an easy and useful mode to configure, although it has similar aspects in VRRP as well as the stack structure.

As you can see in the picture, let’s take two S series Main Switches. Both switches are positioned one below the other in the picture for ease of explanation of Enterasys Bonding Mode. However, a complete redundancy can be achieved by positioning both switches in independent buildings and locations.

This is the most important feature that distinguishes Enterasys Bonding mode from VRRP and Stack configuration. In case one of the switches is disabled due to environmental factors (power outage, natural disaster, fire, hardware failure, etc.), traffic will continue to flow through the other Main switch.

One of the extra features provided by Bonding mode is that the configuration is done as if it is done on a single switch. In this respect, it is similar to the Stack structure. Interface names will be for example t.1.1, t.1.2, t1.3 for the 1st switch and t.2.1, t.2.2, t.2.3 for the 2nd switch. This will provide convenience in the configuration phase.

Let’s consider the main switches 1 and 2 in the picture in separate locations, but let’s also consider them as if they are in the same location with F / O cabling. For the SSA-G8018-0652 model switch I use, let’s connect the two switches with 10-10Gbit Multimode F/O cable from 48-49 interfaces with +SFP module.

Only network traffic will flow through these ports, communication with switches, broadcast and multicast messages will pass through the 1 Gbit Single Mode F/O cable on interfaces 47. Therefore, a security policy will be created automatically. In the next article, let’s move on to a little bit of configuration.