NC7131 team drops data when set to 2GB

[Kim Bridgland]

After updating to ver 8.10.0.0 of the teaming software teaming was set to auto config. Although the team runs at 2gb this appears to cause data timeouts and the server dropping from the network. I have provisionally forced the teaming to fault tolerance only so that only one NIC is running.
The NICs are connected to seperate cisco 4006 switches. My dilemma now is, is it the new teaming software at fault or a problem the cisco ios in that it won't support this type of teaming.

[Roger Faucher]

Kim:

Did you also update the driver(s) to 8.6.11.0:

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/networking/us/download/22806.html

(I am assuming you're running Windows Server 2003).

Make a great day!

Roger

[Connery]

Kim,
Automatic mode first tries 802.3ad port trunking using LACP. If the switches don't suppport it or the configuration doesn't support it (like being connected to two different switches), then Automatic mode will fall back to Transmit Load Balancing (TLB).

In some environments where NIC Teams are connected to dual switches and one of them is configured for Layer 3 switching (routing), then the routing engines ARP cache can end up being different than the switching engine's ARP cache - even though they are both on the same switch.

This behavior can be seen by pinging something on the same subnet (uses switching engine) and something on a different subnet (uses routing engine). If the device on the different subnet has problems but the device on the same subnet doesn't, then you are most likely experiencing this problem.

If you have this problem, you have two choices:
1. Use NFT (like you are doing)
2. Plug both NICs in the Team to the same switch (downside is you lose switch redundancy).

We are working on a resolution to this issue but it won't be out anytime soon.

If all the information above was useless because you aren't experiencing that problem, repost and we can continue troubleshooting. :-)

Oh, if you continue to have problems, I recommend running a DOS utility we install with teaming called HPNETSVY.EXE. This utility provides all the configuration information about your HP NICs and Teams. It's in your windows directory so you can run it from any directory path. Run the utility (with the configuration GUI NOT running) and send the output to a text file (hpnetsvy >output.txt). Attach the text file to your post if you need to request additional assistance.

Best regards,
-sean