Customizing hashing parameters and shared-buffer alpha values for better load balancing

These switches achieve load balancing through use of a hashing algorithm, which determines how to forward traffic over LAG bundles or to next-hop devices when ECMP is enabled. The hashing algorithm makes hashing decisions based on values in various packet fields. You can explicitly configure some hashing parameters to make hashing more efficient. The shared-buffer pool is a global memory space that all ports on the switch share dynamically as they need buffers. The switch uses the shared-buffer pool to absorb traffic bursts after the dedicated-buffer pool is exhausted. The shared-buffer pool threshold is dynamically calculated based on a factor called "alpha". You can specify the alpha, or dynamic threshold, value to determine the change threshold of shared buffer pools for both ingress and egress buffer partitions. To specify hashing parameters: user@switch# set forwarding-options enhanced-hash-key hash-params (ecmp | lag) To specify a threshold value for a particular queue: user@switch# set class-of-service shared-buffer (ingress|egress) buffer-partition buffer dynamic-threshold value