Synology to Windows 10 Link Aggregation

Hello L1T Forums once again!

(Not quite sure if this is the right place for my problem but here I go)

In the beginning of the year I made a transition from a DIY FreeNAS server to a Synology DS1817+. Ever since I have been graced with stability, low temps and great built-in features and support.

For the past two months I have been slowly looking around the web and trying to understand how to setup LACP between Synology and my main desktop with Windows 10.

I do not own a switch that supports link aggregation. As a result my plan is to connect 1 port from the server to my switch and two ports to my desktop. I have a few questions regarding this setup:

  1. Is it even possible? (My main inspiration is the LMG videos on cheap 10G)
  2. Will there be problems with loop-backs given My desktop will be connected to the same switch as the Synology AND there will be a connection between Synology and Win10 PC?
  3. Does anyone have any clue on how to achieve this? I have been googling and trying things but without success.

Thanks in advance!!

Look into SMB multipath multichannel

You won’t be able to have two network interfaces on the same subnet, so if you were to do it you would have to have the link between the two machines on a different subnet to the LAN.

But. link aggregation between two hosts will not give you any more speed than a single link. SMB multipath might work for you assuming you can get it working on the synology and it will only work for SMB.

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Well these are the options provided to me for link aggregation. The second one is the only one that will increase speeds to a single client (I think)
image

There are no link aggregation modes which will increase speeds to a single client (except round robin in linux but that introduces other issues). Link aggregation doesn’t work that way. There can only ever be one pathway between hosts, link aggregation just gives you more pathways for more hosts.

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hmm alright then. In that case does it mean that the only way to increase bandwidth between the two is with a 10G card?

If the synology supports smb multichannel then that might work but otherwise 10gb is going to be the best and easiest way to do it.

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Thanks for the help! With a quick google search it looks like SMB multichannel is supported “experimentally”. Here is a quick “guide” for future reference https://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?t=128482