13/5/2020 MLAG — Arista ATD 1 documentation

MLAG

Note
Did you know the “mlag” script is composed of Python code that uses the CloudVision Portal REST API to
automate the provisioning of CVP Con glets. The con glets that are con gured via the REST API are
Spine1-MLAG-Lab , Spine2-MLAG-Lab , Leaf1-MLAG-Lab , Leaf2-MLAG-Lab , Leaf3-MLAG-Lab . In addition each
switch also gets the VLANs con glet.

Note
The manually-entered commands below that are part of this lab are equivalent to Leaf4-MLAG-Lab .

1. Log into the LabAccess jumpserver:

1. Type mlag at the prompt. The script will con gure the datacenter with the exception of Leaf4.

2. On Leaf3, verify MLAG operation (it should not be operating correctly)

show mlag
show mlag detail
show mlag interfaces

2. Con gure MLAG on the Leaf4 switch using the following criteria

54.215.212.182/labguides/mlag.html 1/5
13/5/2020 MLAG — Arista ATD 1 documentation

1. Con gure Port-channel on Leaf4 to used for MLAG communication between Leaf3 & Leaf4.

configure
interface port-channel 10
switchport mode trunk

interface ethernet 1
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 10 mode active

Note
A channel-group is a group of interfaces on a single Arista switch. A channel-group is associated
with a port-channel interface immediately upon its creation. The channel-group command
implicitly creates the matching port-channel with the same ID, which is 10 in this case. The
switchport mode trunk command allows all VLANs on port-channel 10.

2. Verify switching operation

show interfaces status

show lldp neighbors
show interfaces trunk

Note
Each switch is assigned a globally unique sysID by concatenating the 16-bit system priority to
a 48-bit MAC address of one of the switch’s physical ports. This sysID is used by peer devices
when forming an aggregation to verify that all links are from the same switch - for
environments where the MLAG peer link contains multiple physical links - which it does NOT
in this example. A trunk group is the set of physical interfaces that comprise the trunk and the
collection of VLANs whose tra c is carried on the trunk. The tra c of a VLAN that belongs to
one or more trunk groups is carried only on ports that are members of trunk groups to which
the VLAN belongs, i.e., VLANs con gured in a trunk group are ‘pruned’ o all ports that are not
associated with the trunk group. The spanning-tree protocol (STP) is disabled for the peer-link
VLAN 4094 to prevent any potential STP disruption on the interpeer communications link.
Since VLAN 4094 has been restricted to only be on the peer-link (Po10) by trunk group
MLAGPEER & switchport trunk group MLAGPEER (see step #2.3) the chance of a loop is
eliminated. To prevent loops do NOT add this trunk group MLAGPEER to any other interface
links.

3. Con gure the MLAG VLAN (both Layer 2 and Layer 3).

54.215.212.182/labguides/mlag.html 2/5
13/5/2020 MLAG — Arista ATD 1 documentation

configure
vlan 4094
trunk group MLAGPEER

interface port-channel 10
switchport trunk group MLAGPEER
exit

no spanning-tree vlan-id 4094

interface vlan 4094

description MLAG PEER LINK
ip address 172.16.34.2/30

ping 172.16.34.1

Note
The ip address 172.16.34.2/30 (see step #2.3) assigned to one side of the peer-link can be any
unicast address that does not con ict with any SVIs on the same switch. The local-interface
vlan 4094 command (see step #2.4) speci es the SVI upon which the switch sends MLAG
control tra c. The IP address is speci ed within the de nition of the VLAN associated with this
local interface, which you already performed earlier above. While the peer-link’s (designated
with the command peer-link port-channel 10 (see below)) primary purpose is to exchange
MLAG control information between the 2 peer switches, it also carries dataplane tra c from
devices that are attached to only 1 MLAG peer & have no alternative path. This peer-link can
also carry tra c in topology failure scenarios (i.e. one of these peer-link switches loses all its
uplinks to the spine switches). The domain-id MLAG34 command determines the MLAG
domain that consists of these 2 peer switches & the links that connect these 2 switches. The
domain-id is case-sensitive and must match the same domain-id on the other peer switch.

4. De ne the MLAG Domain.

configure
mlag
domain-id MLAG34
local-interface vlan 4094
peer-address 172.16.34.1
peer-link port-channel 10

5. Con gure Port-channels and interfaces on Leaf4 connecting to Spine1 & Spine2.

54.215.212.182/labguides/mlag.html 3/5
13/5/2020 MLAG — Arista ATD 1 documentation

configure
interface port-channel 34
switchport mode trunk
mlag 34

interface ethernet 2-3

channel-group 34 mode active
switchport mode trunk

Note
The mlag 34 (see #2.5) assigns an MLAG ID to interface port-channel 34. MLAG peer switches
form an MLAG when each switch con gures the same MLAG ID to a port-channel interface.
This is di erent than the MLAG domain-id (see #2.4). The global-scope mlag command above
(see #2.4) just enters the global MLAG con guration scope of the Arista switch.

6. Con gure Port-channels on Leaf4 connecting to Host2

configure
interface port-channel 4
switchport access vlan 12
mlag 4

interface ethernet 4
channel-group 4 mode active

interface ethernet5
shutdown

3. Validate MLAG on the Leaf4 switch using the following:

1. Verify MLAG operation

show mlag
show mlag detail
show mlag interfaces

2. Verify switching operation

show interfaces status

show lldp neighbors
show interfaces trunk

54.215.212.182/labguides/mlag.html 4/5
13/5/2020 MLAG — Arista ATD 1 documentation

3. Validate connectivity from Host1 to Host2 by logging into Host1 through the menu (option 7) or
using screen.

enable
ping 172.16.112.202

LAB COMPLETE!

© Copyright 2020, Arista Networks. Back to top

Created using Sphinx (http://sphinx-doc.org/) 1.8.5.

54.215.212.182/labguides/mlag.html 5/5