NIC Teaming

[Milomir]

I am deploying DL385G5 servers with couple of Cisco CAT6509E. My goal is to configure NIC team on each of database servers for load balancing and fault tolerance. Fault tolerance should keep connectivity in scenario when one switch fails. Load balancing is important for backup. I need throughput of at least 2 NICs on each server for backup. A few TB of data have to be backed up from each server. One of NICs is required for private network in the cluster. So I have 3 NICs remaining for the team. With NICs connected to separate switches I don’t seem to have an option for switch-assisted load balancing.
What is my best option in this situation? Would Transmit Load Balancing give me more throughput? Please advise.

[Pieter 't Hart]

>>>
with couple of Cisco CAT6509E
So I have 3 NICs remaining for the team. With NICs connected to separate switches I donâ t seem to have an option for switch-assisted load balancing.
<<<
within the same switch you have so allready you can for 2 NIC's.

Look at cico's VSS (expensive but nice...).
yo can add this to the 6509's so they combine to a "single" switch, and make all three NIC's work together..
are all serverslots occupied or can you add more NIC's?

where do you backup-to?
if it's so crucial, do not backup over the normal network but a dedicated (fiberchannel ? port).

[Milomir]

Thanks for your response. I am aware of VSS but unfortunately it is not an option. Additional NICs will be purchased if these existing prove not to be sufficient. Then I can add a separate load-balancing team connected to the same switch.

[Milomir]

Basically, my question is can I get more than 1Gb throughput with teaming software and without additional hardware and software.

[Pieter 't Hart]

Yes with two nics teamed and connected to the same switch you get more (network)throughput.
switch-assisted load balancing can be active on the two nics connected to the same switch, with the third as failover link.
If you want more without adding hardware, you may consider connecting the third nic also to the same switch.
Your redundancy is already covered by using a cluster configuration, so do you really need each separate clusternode redundantly connected to the network?
You may connect each node trifold to one of the 6509.

another thought may be to connect the third nic on the other switch not in the team, but in a different ip-subnet. So you can utilize load balancing on routing level instead of L2?

as for the backup, you may run into OS limitations concerning disk-i/o instead of network.

[Milomir]

I know that I can get more throughput by connecting to the same switch and with load balancing. My question is can I get more throughput with 3 ports in one team connected to two switches. I was hoping that somebody who knows more about teaming can help me here or that he can confirm that this is not possible.
Number of nodes in the cluster is not even. I am aware of other limits. All other components can provide more throughput and that is why I am asking this question.

[Pieter 't Hart]

No, not the way you want it.

Only when you configure VSS you can team across the two 6509's.

Only when you use different subnets/vlans, both connections to the two 6509's will be active without VSS.
Both as two different links to the world outside your server, not a single team.