Dual Nework Interface Cards?

[Shaun Aldrich_1]

Hello Everyone:

Just wanted to ask everyone what the 'Best Practice' is for dealing with a system that has 2 interface cards. One of the interface cards is the standard 10 Mbps internal interface card and the second is a HP-PB 100 Mbps interface card. Currently, on all 4 of our systems we have the internal interface card disabled and only have the 100 Mbps interface card configured. We are running Omniback II 3.5 for backing up all of our systems. Should the internal interface card be configured as well? Is there any performance benefits to having both cards configured? How could I configure / enable both cards and would I be using the same IP address? Look forward to any feedback anyone has. Thanks.

S Aldrich

Hardware Station Crd Hdw Net-Interface NM MAC HP-DLPI DLPI
Path Address In# State NamePPA ID Type Support Mjr#
10/4/16 0x080009D4BDCE 0 UP lan0 snap0 1 ETHER Yes 119
10/12/6 0x080009D4F6FD 1 UP lan1 snap1 2 ETHER Yes 119

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Shaun:
I don't see any need to configure the 10BaseT interface. If you want greater performance you have a few options:
1) Look into Auto-Port Aggregation in which multiple interfaces share a common MAC address.
2) Since you mentioned OB2, add another 100BaseT card and configure a VLAN specifically for backup.

[Shaun Aldrich_1]

Hi,

Thanks alot for your reply. Where can I find out more information on Auto-Port Aggregation in which multiple interfaces share a common MAC address? I am very interested in this. Thanks.

S Aldrich

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Shaun:

I run my servers that same way -- with the 10MB lan card disabled.

If you are running on 11.x (as it appears that you are) you could look at AUTO PORT AGGREGATION (product #J4240AA). This software allows multiple lan cards to be configured on the same subnet/network for load balancing and redundancy.

Otherwise, you could simply configure multiple IP addresses for the cards you have and use the slower 10MB lan for a failsafe avenue into the server in the event that the high-speed card fails.

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Shaun:

Here's a good link on Auto-Port Aggregation for you:

http://www.hp.com/products1/unixserverconnectivity/software/auto_port.html

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Shaun:
If you go to www.docs.hp.com and Search for
"Auto-Port Aggregation" you will find all the docs you want.