The static multimode vif implementation in Data ONTAP is in compliance with IEEE 802.3ad (static). Static multimode vifs do not support IEEE 802.3ad (dynamic), also known as Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). In addition, Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), Cisco's proprietary link aggregation protocol, is not supported. Any switch that supports aggregates, but does not have control packet exchange for configuring an aggregate, can be used with static multimode vifs.
In a multimode vif, all interfaces in the vif are active and share a single MAC address. This logical aggregation of interfaces provides higher throughput than a single-mode vif. Static multimode vifs can recover from a failure of up to (n-1) interfaces, where n is the total number of interfaces that form the vif.
A multimode vif requires a switch that supports link aggregation over multiple switch ports. The switch is configured so that all ports to which links of a vif are connected are part of a single logical port. Some switches might not support link aggregation of ports configured for jumbo frames. For more information, see your switch vendor's documentation.
Several load-balancing options are available to distribute traffic among the interfaces of a multimode vif.
Data ONTAP is only responsible for distributing outbound traffic and does not have control over how inbound packets arrive because each end of an aggregate is responsible for controlling the distribution of its outbound traffic.
The following figure is an example of a multi-mode vif. Interfaces e0, e1, e2, and e3 are part of the MultiTrunk1 multimode vif. All four interfaces in the MultiTrunk1 multimode vif are active.
