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Single-mode interface group

In a single-mode interface group, only one of the interfaces in the interface group is active. The other interfaces are on standby, ready to take over if the active interface fails. All interfaces in a single-mode interface group share a common MAC address.

There can be more than one interface on standby in a single-mode interface group. If an active interface fails, the storage system randomly picks one of the standby interfaces to be the next active link. The active link is monitored and link failover is controlled by the storage system; therefore, single-mode interface group does not require any switch configuration. Single-mode interface groups also do not require a switch that supports link aggregation.

If a single-mode interface group spans over multiple switches, you must connect the switches with an Inter-Switch link (ISL). For a single-mode interface group, the switch ports must be in the same broadcast domain (for example, a LAN or a VLAN). Link-monitoring ARP packets, which have a source address of 0.0.0.0, are sent over the ports of a single-mode interface group to detect whether the ports are in the same broadcast domain.

The following figure is an example of a single-mode interface group. In the figure, e0 and e1 are part of the SingleTrunk1 single-mode interface group. If the active interface, e0, fails, the standby e1 interface takes over and maintains the connection to the switch.