topic Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Geoff Collins — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 08:59:28 GMT

Hi

I'm using a number of ML370 G3 and DL360 servers. We've built them using Smartstart 7.01 and Windows Server 2003 Standard edition.

After installation is complete the configuration of the HP Teaming defaults to load balancing. In the past (using an older version of Smartstart) it defaulted to Fault Tolerance. All's fine since we want Load Balancing anyway. Each of the nics are connected to separate Cisco 3500 series Catalyst switches (but I dont think that's important).

The problem I have is that network performance is poor. It is noticeably slower with both interfaces connected than just one. Additionally ICMP (ping etc) is very sporadic. Sometimes it will go into phases of not working and the only way to kick it back into action is to disconnect / reconnect the network leads.

This is not limited to the one server and is not common to one switch or subnet.

I suspect that it is something to do with the new version of the HP Teaming software as we have a number of W2000 servers running using Loadbalancing without issue.

Any help that you can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks

Geoff Collins

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

JohnWRuffo — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 09:12:47 GMT

Geoff:

Here is the latest version of the Teaming Util (version 7.60 dated April 14, 2004):
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19608.html

You may need to update the driver versions for the NIC's as well:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/69_4307.html#12

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/69_4764.html#12

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Geoff Collins — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 09:29:21 GMT

Thanks - I'll try that and let you know...

Geoff

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Bill Parker_3 — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 09:46:11 GMT

Check your controls in the team properties, if you're using Transmit LB you should not have a problem, but switch-assisted will certaily cause this type of problem if not properly configured.

This also sounds like it could be a STP (SpanTree) issue. I'd check with the network team if you have one. If not, and you're not sure about the mgt of those 3500s I'd just use AFT (Fail on fault) and go back to one. Your recieve speeds will be the same, transmit down a little, but you're still fault tolerant.

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Geoff Collins — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 10:01:14 GMT

Hmmm

I'm already on LB Transmit, so it can't be that. The drivers didnt seem to make any difference but I'm not that surprised since the issue isnt listed in the fix list...

What is the potenetial issue with Spanning tree?

Cheers for your help

Geoff

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Craig Conway_1 — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 21:58:42 GMT

Have you checked the switch port configuration, particularily in respect to etherchannel. LB in the HP teaming utility is the same as FEC in the cisco world.

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Schlumpf Christoph — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 05:52:31 GMT

Thanks

I found this solution in Microsoft KB. I like more to solve problems, than to prevent from error messages. But it seems to be the only solution for now. I upgraded the NIC driver and the network configuration utility (Rel. 7.7), but this does not help:-(

Re: HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

Marcelo Pagano — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:41:48 GMT

Craig Conway wrote:
..."LB in the HP teaming utility is the same as FEC in the cisco world"...
can anybody explain it?