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  • 1.  vMX LACP not forming in JCL/ESXi (L3 works, LACP stuck in defaulted state)

    Posted 03-25-2026 09:26

    Hi all,

    Running into an issue with LACP between vMX instances in a JCL (ESXi-based) lab and curious if anyone has seen this before.

    I'm trying to form a simple AE bundle between two vMX routers:

    • vMX2: ge-0/0/2 + ge-0/0/5 → ae0
    • vMX3: ge-0/0/2 + ge-0/0/5 → ae0

    Config is straightforward:

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    set chassis aggregated-devices ethernet device-count 1
    set interfaces ge-0/0/2 gigether-options 802.3ad ae0
    set interfaces ge-0/0/5 gigether-options 802.3ad ae0
    set interfaces ae0 aggregated-ether-options lacp active
    set interfaces ae0 unit 0 family inet address 10.100.23.x/24

    Symptoms:

    • Member links are up/up
    • ae0 stays down
    • show lacp interfaces shows:
      • Receive State: Defaulted
      • Mux State: Detached
    • No LACP partner state learned on either side
    • Traffic counters on member links stay at 0

    However, if I remove LACP and configure plain L3 on the individual interfaces:

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    set interfaces ge-0/0/2 unit 0 family inet address ...

    Ping works perfectly between the two routers

    So:

    • Data plane is working
    • Connectivity is correct
    • Issue appears isolated to LACP

    This makes it look like LACP PDUs (ethertype 0x8809) are not being exchanged or processed correctly in the lab environment.

    Questions:

    • Has anyone seen LACP not forming between vMX nodes in JCL / ESXi?
    • Are there known limitations with LACP control frames in this setup?
    • Any required vSwitch / port group settings to allow LACP to work?

    At this point it feels like a lab/hypervisor limitation rather than a Junos config issue, but wanted to sanity-check.

    Cheers 



    ------------------------------
    BRADLEY RIAPOLOV
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  • 2.  RE: vMX LACP not forming in JCL/ESXi (L3 works, LACP stuck in defaulted state)

    Posted 03-26-2026 08:06
    Edited by aaron.gould 03-26-2026 08:06
    are you seeing LACP packets sending and receiving?

    root@960> clear lacp statistics interfaces ge-0/0/0
     
    root@960> show lacp statistics interfaces ge-0/0/0
    Aggregated interface: ae1
        LACP Statistics:       LACP Rx     LACP Tx   Unknown Rx   Illegal Rx
          ge-0/0/0                   4           3            0            0
     
    root@960> show lacp statistics interfaces ge-0/0/0
    Aggregated interface: ae1
        LACP Statistics:       LACP Rx     LACP Tx   Unknown Rx   Illegal Rx
          ge-0/0/0                   6           5            0            0

    also try.... more device-count, and changing to ether-options instead of gigether-options

    set chassis aggregated-devices ethernet device-count 10

    set interfaces ge-0/0/2 ether-options 802.3ad ae0
    set interfaces ge-0/0/5 ether-options 802.3ad ae0



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    - Aaron
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: vMX LACP not forming in JCL/ESXi (L3 works, LACP stuck in defaulted state)

    Posted 03-28-2026 06:48

    Aaron, thank you for trying to help me!  I only see TX, not RX like in your output.

    jcluser@vMX2> show lacp statistics interfaces

    Aggregated interface: ae0

        LACP Statistics:       LACP Rx     LACP Tx   Unknown Rx   Illegal Rx

          ge-0/0/2                   0         169            0            0

          ge-0/0/5                   0         169            0            0

    jcluser@vMX3> show lacp statistics interfaces    

    Aggregated interface: ae0

        LACP Statistics:       LACP Rx     LACP Tx   Unknown Rx   Illegal Rx

          ge-0/0/2                   0         236            0            0

          ge-0/0/5                   0         236            0            0

    Also, this lab is on 21.1R3.11 and I cannot find "ether-options":

    jcluser@vMX2# set interfaces ge-0/0/2 e?

    Possible completions:

      encapsulation        Physical link-layer encapsulation

    > esi                  ESI configuration of multi-homed interface

    [edit]

    jcluser@vMX2#

     



    ------------------------------
    BRADLEY RIAPOLOV
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: vMX LACP not forming in JCL/ESXi (L3 works, LACP stuck in defaulted state)

    Posted 03-29-2026 13:49

    Is JCL supporting LACP nowadays?
    It did not used to do that...



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    PER GRANATH
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    Original Message