We have an iXsystems 1U server (E5) with an Intel 4-port ethernet NIC 
installed, model I350-T4 (manufactured May of 2013). We're trying to bind the 4 
ports on this NIC together into a single lagg port, connected LACP to a 
distribution switch (Cisco 4900-series). We are able to successfully bind the 2 
on-board ethernet ports to a single lagg, however the NIC is not so 
cooperative. At first we thought we had a bad NIC, but a replacement has not 
fixed the issue. We are thinking there may be a driver limitation with these 
Intel ethernet NICs when attempting to bind more than 2 ports to a lagg. 

FreeBSD version:
FreeBSD 9.1-PRERELEASE #0 r244125: Wed Dec 12 11:47:47 CST 2012

rc.conf:
# LINK AGGREGATION
ifconfig_igb2="UP"
ifconfig_igb3="UP"
ifconfig_igb4="UP"
ifconfig_igb5="UP"
cloned_interfaces="lagg0"
ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto lacp laggport igb2 laggport igb3 laggport igb4 
laggport igb5"
ifconfig_lagg0="inet 192.168.1.14  netmask 255.255.255.0"

We've confirmed that the lagg module is loaded (clearly, as the pair of 
on-board ethernet ports can be bound successfully). Binding various 
combinations of ports on the NIC yields odd results, as sometimes the first one 
in the list does not negotiate properly, sometimes the last one in the list 
fails negotiation. Adding interfaces to lagg individually versus all at the 
same time does not seem to make any difference. At one point we even tried to 
assign unique and separate IP addresses to the ethernet ports individually, and 
only a couple of the ports would actually come active and respond to any sort 
of network activity. Due to this issue with the number of "usable" ports even 
beyond the link aggregation failure, this is sort of what leads us to believe 
there may be an issue with the drivers for this card.

We've searched the 'net/lists fairly extensively, and have seen very few 
instances where people have tried to bind more than 2 ports to a lagg with 
FreeBSD. Again, 2 ports is no problem, so long as we use the on-board ports; 
it's the introduction of the Intel NIC and 2 more ports that has us stuck. 

Has anybody had any success with such a setup? 

Joe

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