VMware highly recommends deploying the mesh topology shown on the left that provides highly reliable redundant design, and it doesn’t need link state tracking feature.

If link state tracking capability is not available on physical switches, and there are no redundant paths available in the design, then customers can make use of Beacon Probing featur. Beacon probing is most useful with three or more uplinks in a team.

Configure Link State Tracking

Interfaces connected to servers are referred to as downstream interfaces, and interfaces connected to distribution switches and network devices are referred to as upstream interfaces. When link-state tracking is enabled, the downstream interfaces are bound to the upstream interfaces. After a set of downstream ports are associated to a set of upstream ports, if all of the upstream ports become unavailable, link-state tracking automatically puts the associated downstream ports in an error-disabled state. This causes the primary interface of the server to failover to the secondary interface.

 
Command
Purpose

Step 1 

configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 1 

feature lst

Enables link-state track feature.

Step 2 

link state track number

Creates a link-state group, and enable link-state tracking. The group number can be 1 to 6. The default is 1.

Step 3 

interface interface-id

Specifies a physical interface or range of interfaces to configure, and enters interface configuration mode.

Valid interfaces include switch ports in access or trunk mode (IEEE 802.1q), routed ports, or multiple ports bundled into an EtherChannel interface (static or LACP), that is also in trunk mode.

Step 4 

link state group [number] {upstream | downstream}

Specifies a link-state group, and configures the interface as either an upstream or downstream interface in the group. The group number can be 1 to 6. The default is 1.

Step 5 

end

Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Step 6 

show running-config

Verifies your entries.

Step 7 

copy running-config startup-config

(Optional) Saves your entries in the configuration file.