Working Link Aggregation Config RT-AC66U

[KAD]

Do all devices in the chain need to support 2 x 1Gbps speed?

I have a QNAP dual GigE NAS connected to the router, then a GigE dumb switch, then my desktop with a single GigE. I take it there would be no speed benefit for my configuration?

any pair of nic's being bonded together must support the mode you decide to use

initially sounds like you should be able to use 802.3ad and get 2GB bandwidth
from the QNAP to the router

other links in the chain don't sound like they support this configuration

you could still bond the router to the switch, using one of the other modes, which do not require any special support,
example mode balance-rr or 0
would achieve fault tolerance and load balancing
but you would not get 2GB bandwidth between router and switch
and that mode is completely untested

 

[saintdev]

I was curious, and no I will not support this in my script
but thought it might be useful for somebody

when you load the bonding module, if can use the max_bonds parameter to create multiple bonds

modprobe bonding max_bonds=2

will create bond0 and bond1

so you can in theory have 2GB bandwidth the whole way
server to router to PC

of coarse the downside is that config would use all 4 available ports

You can dynamically create/delete bond interfaces using the following sysfs path.

/sys/class/net/bonding_masters

This behaves similar to the slaves sysfs path, for example

# Remove bond0
$ echo -bond0 > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters

# Add two bonding interfaces, bond0 and james_bond
# NOTE: i have no idea if underscores are actually valid for interface names
$ echo +bond0 > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters
$ echo +james_bond > /sys/class/net/bonding_masters

# Query existing bond interfaces
$ cat /sys/class/net/bonding_masters
bond0 james_bond

 

[Anders]

Up and running with Link Agg.

Bought a D-link DGS-1210-08P and "D-Lock USB 2.0 to Gigabit Ethernet"

Now I'm running 2GB from my iMac to the Router, and Full functional Link Agg to My Synology 712+. I have a 120mb download rate from my mapped drive to my desktop. Now Im just waiting for the new Synology firmware that is supporting SMB2 for OSX

Yet again thank you so much for your effort - Merlin firmware FTW.

Br

Anders

 

[ebalsumgo]

So I cannot seem to get this to work on the AC68U, when I fire up the script LinkAgg 3 4 internet/network connectivity of anything connecting to the router drops until I reboot. On the off chance I do not get booted off it goes through and removes the dead bond entries while complaining about no slave files being found. I have not done too much script debugging to make sure that its doing what it is supposed to yet.

 

[KAD]

I found a good way to debug is via wireless, like from a laptop, etc ...
because you know you're not going to loose the connection

what are you bonding on the other side?
PC, NAS, Switch ?

and once bond is created, there's a 10 second sleep before it performs that final check (have to wait for all the interfaces to go active)
if the final check fails, to does like you said, delete the bond
and puts ports back to default state

sounds like when it is successful, you loose access
which is the same problem that anders had with a synology NAS
some bug on the synology side

 

[ebalsumgo]

Yeah I have a Synology on the other side as well, I was hoping that it was anders's hardware (mine is a bit newer I believe) guess its something with their kernel setup on their side :/

 

[KAD]

just for the record, it would be nice to know which synology product you tried this with

so far we've got non-working
712+
713+

 

[ebalsumgo]

just for the record, it would be nice to know which synology product you tried this with

so far we've got non-working
712+
713+

DS1512+ running DSM 4.3-3776

 

[TinMan11]

Breaks streaming to WD TV

After I got link aggregation working between my Synology DS412+ (running DSM 4.3-3810) and my Asus RT-N66U (running 3.0.0.4.374.34 (Merlin build)) streaming to both of my WD TV Live Streaming media players (running latest firmware version) stopped working.

I turn off the link aggregation and streaming starts working again.

I should note that streaming was the only thing that wasn't working, everything else was.

I simply couldn't "browse" the shared folders to select a video. I could however browse to the shared folders from a stand windows or mac computer no problem.

The DS412+ is setup with static DHCP so it gets a consistent IP address.

I followed the steps in this Github wiki post to get everything setup. https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Link-Aggregation


Anybody have any ideas? I'd really like to get link aggregation working properly but we do stream a lot video.

 

[KAD]

@TinMan11,

if everything except the WD is working

then the problem is on the WD side

unfortunately I have too much experience with the WD players
and know first hand all the problems that can be present with those

my intial thoughts, if you're using SMB
try switching to NFS
or vice versa

besides that a better place to debug the WD
if running official firmware
http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Home-Entertainment/ct-p/wdtv_home_entertainment

if running WDLXTV
http://forum.wdlxtv.com/

I'm still active to some degree on both those forums


@otherswithsynologyNAS

would be interesting to know if anybody tried a static IP for LinkAgg with there asus router
another note, there could be a significant change is the specific DSM version
apparently static IP with link agg is working on DSM 4.3-3810

 

[ebalsumgo]

-3810 just came out a couple of days ago. My synology is set to "static dhcp" on the router, but I can switch it to straight up static assignment. I am upgrading to -3810 as we speak and can try it out again tonight.

 

[TinMan11]

@KAD

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Also read the there's an issue with the latest firmware so I might try downgrading again and see what happens.

Just to clarify I have the WD TV Live SMP (aka Gen3) media player.

Heres that issue I was talking about.
http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-SMP-Issues/Network-Streaming-Issues/idi-p/581725

 

[KAD]

yeah, there's quite a few odities with those players

I wrote a number of WDLXTV scripts and themes
RMerlin wrote most of the web interface for WDLXTV

I'm currently running an SMP on my nework with WDLXTV alpha on it
I keep telling myself to build an xbmc htpc
but for now ...

 

[zoon]

Hi

I'm new here, total noob and very interested getting this setup and running

According to the wiki page I require to enable the JFFS partition which I did and formated it. I also downloaded the script.

But I honestly have no clue how to run this script on my router or where to save it. I really lack of basic knowledge but hopefully this is a start.

Do I have to "copy" the downloaded file onto the router? If so how?

I googled and of course read merlins wiki page about user scripts. If someone would be kind enough explaining on how to initiate or short step by step tutorial I'd really appreciate it.

cheers

 

[KAD]

yes you need to copy the script to the router
easiest way is just a drag and drop over the network onto a usb drive
connected to the router
there are of coarse other ways like ftp as well

from there you'll need to follow the guides on telnet/ssh
as the script is meant to be run from a cmd line

 

[zoon]

Thanks, in the meantime I used WinSCP and copied the script to /jffs/scripts and executed it from command prompt using putty. Not sure how to autorun it on bootup but I'll figure that out with services-start.

The Bond was created successfully and I was able to enable Channel Bonding 802.3ad on my Synology 1512+. Both the devices report that it's active.

I did the same previously using a Cisco SG300-10P Switch and I regularly copied with 110-115MB/s to and from my PC connected by one 1GBit link. The only reason I set this up was not to bottleneck the rest of the user in my network.

However with the N66U it appears I get max 85MB/s with active LinkAgg, with one Link it still get above 100MB/s when there is noone else doing something on the NAS.

I'm not sure if I did something wrong but I'm getting better performance with single 1Gbit or using LinkAgg with the Cisco Switch.

 

[KAD]

well, I would expect better performance from a dedicated switch

as for the 1GB thing, not sure what to say

I haven't run any specific speed test on my AC66U with linkagg

I enabled LinkAgg on my router to improve throughput from router to switch
(primarily to benefit wireless clients needing server access)
and
I visibly noticed an improvement in wireless clients being about to access my server

but file transfers like you're talking about PC to server, I completely bypass the router my server and PC are connected to the same switch

 

[hankydysplasia]

That's the perfect usage example
those with a NAS with dual NIC's can now use LACP without having to buy an expensive managed switch.

That's me. I just got a Synology DS1513+ and thought the Link Aggregation would work right away with routers. You've done a great thing sharing this with me. Very easy to setup step-by-step too. Didn't take any troubleshooting for me.

 

[KAD]

That's me. I just got a Synology DS1513+ and thought the Link Aggregation would work right away with routers. You've done a great thing sharing this with me. Very easy to setup step-by-step too. Didn't take any troubleshooting for me.

I guess your just in time synology was non-functional until the last DSM update
but I'm glad it's working

on a side note, if anybody wants to share what devices have been tested and working, it might be a good idea to get some scope of the various hardware this is working on

again, I'm using
HP 1910-8G Switch JG348A - 2 ports Linked to RT-AC66U

 

[ebalsumgo]

what did you do to get the link aggregation working? I cannot get it to happen and not kill all my wired connections on my 68U no matter what I do On Your Synology that is.