So it seems like pretty much every vendor on the server side is now pushing this idea of using "switch independent" teaming, or in other words: it's a LAG on the server side, and on the switch side, it's not a LAG. The switch has no awareness that these ports are bundled together. No LACP, no Channel-group/Aggregated Ethernet, etc.
As a network guy, I really find that really off-putting. It just feels like an invalid configuration to me. In my experience, if you're bundling ports, it's ALWAYS been LACP on both sides.
Microsoft is running with this "SET" (Switch Embedded Teaming) configuration. VMWare seems to have their own flavor as well. I've read the white paper on MSFT SET teams, and it honestly seems really wacky. It talks about VM's forming an "affinitization" with specific host ports, and other craziness. At the end of the day it all just seems to work by using different MAC addresses to transmit data, and a different MAC to bind to ARP and receive return traffic.
One vendor our server team brought in actually made the comment that "LACP is old technology. You don't want to use LACP in a data center, that's outdated." It blew my mind, because I've honestly never heard that before.
So... is this the new norm? Am I the one who is behind in the times? Or is LACP still the way to go?
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