Cisco NX-OS load-balances traffic across all operational interfaces in a port channel by reducing part of the binary pattern formed from the addresses in the frame to a numerical value that selects one of the links in the channel.

Traffic load balance hashing will depend on the traffic header. A binary format will be generated from the packet header, and these binary values will be used to select a specific port channel member. It is hard to get even traffic distribution across all port channel members. To optimize traffic distribution, you can use the option that provides the balance criteria with the greatest variety in port channel configuration. For example, if Layer 2 (non-IP) traffic on a port channel goes only to a single MAC address and you use the destination MAC address as the basis of Layer 2 port channel load balancing, the port channel always chooses the same link in that port channel