PortChanneling and Trunking

Trunking is a commonly used storage industry term. However, the Cisco NX-OS software and switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family implement trunking and PortChanneling as follows:

• PortChanneling enables several physical links to be combined into one aggregated logical link.
• Trunking enables a link transmitting frames in the EISL format to carry (trunk) multiple VSAN traffic. For example, when trunking is operational on an E port, that E port becomes a TE port. A TE port is specific to switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family. An industry standard E port can link to other vendor switches and is referred to as a nontrunking interface . See "Configuring Trunking," for information on trunked interfaces.

PortChanneling and trunking are used separately across an ISL.

• PortChanneling—Interfaces can be channeled between the following sets of ports:
• E ports and TE ports
• F ports and NP ports
• TF ports and TNP ports
• Trunking—Trunking permits carrying traffic on multiple VSANs between switches.

See the Cisco MDS 9000 Family NX-OS Fabric Configuration Guide.

• Both PortChanneling and trunking can be used between TE ports over EISLs.

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