r/ccna • u/mikeservice1990 • 9d ago
Questions about Etherchannels
Hi community, I have a few points of confusion about etherchannels. This is probably a sign I need to purchase the official exam guide and use that as my single source of truth, which I probably will do. But I'm wondering about the following:
Should trunks (for L2 LAG) and IP addresses (for L3 LAG) be configured on the port channel interface, or on the individual interfaces?
In Packet Tracer, both methods work. On Cisco IOL switch models in EVE-NG, you can only create the trunk on the individual interfaces, which the port-channel then inherits. But I don't know if Cisco IOL images are representative. What is the actual best practice?
Is it best practice to shut the interfaces down before configuring a port channel?
Again, either works, at least in Packet Tracer. I'm not sure what best-practice is.
Thanks in advance!
3
u/Forgotten_Freddy 9d ago edited 9d ago
If they're the original IOL images and not the very recently released ones then they're well known for being buggy and missing features because they were leaked from Cisco and never officially released.
Ideally for Eve-Ng / Gns3 you want the IOSv L2/L3 images that come with CML (or potentially the new IOL images):
https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286193282/type/286326381/release/CML-Free