Hi! I though I’d share my experience setting up a Balance SDX since we had some trouble setting up Link Aggregation/LACP; maybe this will be helpful to others.
We originally had envisioned using 2xGE ports to connect to our LAN switch stack, setting up LACP between them and using the ports for access to our WAN providers and LAN, since we bought 2 Virtual WAN licenses.
To our surprise, the GUI wouldn’t let us select two LAN ports for Link Aggregation with the message “Link Aggregation is not supported by the selected port(s)” after clicking the [here] in “Some incompatible options are disabled. Please click [here] for more details.”. If it’s not supported by the LAN ports, then why does the manual have instructions for setting up Link Aggregation and why do the specifications include Link Aggregation?
After some fidgeting around, we found that the WAN ports ARE supported for Link Aggregation, both the Copper GE and the SFP+ ports allow this. So we would have to forego two or our WAN ports and use just the Virtual WAN licenses if we want Link Aggregation towards the LAN. We also tried disabling PoE support and other things to make sure there wasn’t an easy workaround we weren’t considering.
I don’t know if some of the add-in cards support Link Aggregation since we don’t have any currently to try, but our final implementation was to use the WAN ports for WAN1 and WAN2, one LAN port for LAN conectivity, and one LAN port shut down on the SDX side for access to the LAN in case of a contingency. This leaves our two virtual WANs free for connection via LAN ports and the SFP+ ports for connection when our client upgrades their LAN switches to some that support 10GE.
I think it would be helpful for Peplink to add some wording in the specs and the manual so we can design better. Since not everyone has experience with the SDX line from the get-go.
Peplink: Please let us know how Link Aggregation is supported in the add-in cards, I realize some options don’t make a lot of sense like on the 5G cards, but any additional information would be appreciated.
For now we’ve found:
Link Aggregation Supported: Ports 1-4 (SFP 1, SFP 2, Ethernet 1, Ethernet 2)
Link Aggregation NOT Supported: Ports 7-14 (LAN Port 1 - LAN Port 8)
Link Aggregation Support not known: EXM-8C card, EXM-4F card
Hope you all have a great day!
Esteban