Hardware manual

interface port-channel
IR-116
Cisco IOS Interface Command Reference
interface port-channel
To specify a Fast EtherChannel and enter interface configuration mode, use the interface
port-channel global configuration command.
interface port-channel channel-number
Syntax Description
Default
No Fast EtherChannel is specified.
Command Mode
Global configuration
Usage Guidelines
This command first appeared in Cisco IOS Release 11.1 CA.
The Fast EtherChannel feature allows multiple Fast Ethernet point-to-point links to be bundled into
one logical link to provide bidirectional bandwidth of up to 800 Mbps. Fast EtherChannel can be
configured between Cisco 7000 and 7500 series routers with the 7000 Series Route Switch Processor
(RSP7000) and 7000 Series Chassis Interface (RSP7000CI), or between a Cisco 7000 or 7500 series
router with the RSP7000 and RSP700CI and a Catalyst 5000 switch.
You can configure the port-channel interface as you would do to any Fast Ethernet interface.
After you create a port-channel interface, you assign Fast Ethernet interfaces (up to four) to it. For
information on how to assign a Fast Ethernet interface to a port-channel interface, refer to the
channel-group interface configuration command.
Caution The port-channel interface is the routed interface. Do not enable Layer 3 addresses on the physical
Fast Ethernet interfaces. Do not assign bridge groups on the physical Fast Ethernet interfaces because it
creates loops. Also, you must disable spanning tree.
Note If you configure ISL, you must assign the IP address to the subinterface (for example,
interface port-channel 1.1—an IP address per VLAN) and you must specify the encapsulation with
VLAN number under that subinterface (for example, encapsulation isl 100) for ISL to work.
Note Currently, if you want to use the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), you must configure it only
on the port-channel interface and not on the physical Fast Ethernet interface.
channel-number Channel number assigned to this port-channel interface. Range
is 1 to 4.