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I'm in the process of educating myself regarding configuring aggregated links on HP ProCurve switches.

Looking at non-vendor-specific documentation regarding link aggregation, the defining characteristic of "static" link aggregation groups (LAGs) vs dynamic is that they are manually configured on both ends, with no negotiation protocol such as LACP used. This I have no difficulty understanding.

My confusion arose when I consulted the documentation for HP ProCurve switches. Their term for a LAG is a 'Trunk Group'. A Trunk Group can be either dynamic or static. Based on my understanding above, I was expecting it to be a simple case of dynamic uses LACP, and static being manually configured. However, the following three combinations are available:

Trunking Method  |  LACP  |   Trunk  |
-----------------|-------------------|
Dynamic          |   Yes  |    No    |
Static           |   Yes  |    Yes   |

The table can be found in the ProCurve Management and Configuration Guide. There's multiple versions for different firmware releases, but an example can be found on page 110 of this document

So, my question is, what's the difference between "Static Trunk" and "Static LACP"? Why is LACP even an option with a static trunk if nothing is being negotiated? The documentation goes on to explain some of the reasons why you would use the different options, but it still leaves me lacking in terms of basic understanding.

dbr
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  • Can you link to the document you found that in? – Grant Jul 19 '16 at 19:21
  • @Grant I think anyone who is familiar with HP switches would know what I'm referring to as it's integral to how the feature works on those devices. I've added a link anyway though. – dbr Jul 20 '16 at 10:30
  • That's true, but there are a lot of different manuals that reference these features, and many of them explain it slightly differently, so it's nice to know which one you are looking at. – Grant Jul 20 '16 at 15:27

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