Need Help With Link-Aggregation

Hello fellow OpenWrt Users,

I've been a longtime user of OpenWRT, however never spent much time tinkering with it before.

Recently, I've been trying to implement Link Aggregation on my Archer C58, using all 4 LAN Ports on the back (From what I understand are all considered as one switch).

I've briefly described why I'm doing this below, but if you'd like to get to the important part, feel free to skip to below.

While I understand doing Link-Aggregation is not going to help me in any meaningful way due to the fact it is most likely one 100mbps connection to the CPU and the CPU constraints to begin with, its just something I want to try and get running before I do this on a more powerful platform actually capable of handling this.

My reason for doing this is because I have several devices running through this router, and as of right now they are easily capable of saturating the 100mbps uplink. While I understand this won't improve the speed of a singular device, I want to be able to sustain multiple devices when one port or more is saturated. I've currently got this working on an ESXi Host of mine (Using NIC Teaming and Routing based on IP Hash), and it's been working great preventing services from stopping when one 1Gbps uplink is saturated.

Anyhow, here the important part:---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've tried following this guide Link-Aggregation in LAN with VLANs - #5 by slh

Which I'll quote below:

  1. Install the packages kmod-bonding 5.4.188-1, luci-proto-bonding git-21.222.28122-085bb7c, proto-bonding 2021-04-09-1 => two devices called "bond0" and "bonding_masters" should be created automatically
  2. create a new interface using the protocol link-aggregation (channel-bonding)
  3. configure the interface with an IP and subnet mask (i never used them, but they r necessary for the interface creation) (I would recommend waiting with pressing save because I've got a feeling that there was my hiccup)
  4. go to advanced settings
  5. check the force link
  6. choose the interfaces/devices u want to bond (enslave) (e.g. lan3 and lan4)
  7. safe; safe and apply
  8. go to devices and there u should find a device called "bonding-"
  9. create new 802.1q devices as ur vlan-devices with the bond-device as there base-device
  10. create new interfaces for ur vlan-devices
  11. do ur typical config-stuff for interfaces
  12. done

However, I can't seem to get it to work, I've got a separate interface for every port on the switch by assigning a vLAN, to which I've created a Link-Aggregation Interface with each port as a Slave, and Assigning it an IP Address (Which I don't fully understand because my goal is to maintain the LAN IP Address) and added the Link-Aggregation device under br-lan device which is part of the LAN interface I intend for it to be.

I'm confused about where I might have messed up or what I would need to do to fix this, and any help would be greatly appreciated!

(This router does not have internet access for I'm open to tinkering!)