NC7771 Teaming help - throughput

[server team]

I have a backup server with 2 dedicated NC7771 nics. When I team them the roles come up as: card 1 - Tx/Rx and card 2 - TxOnly. As this is a server which receives alot of data (rx) rather than send (tx), does anyone have any ideas for getting the most out of them. I cant seem to be able to change the roles on the settings I have selected.

Any help greatly appreciated,

Rgds,

Mark.

[Robert S. Carr · Accepted solution]

Mark:

Teaming is very dependant on what the network cards themselves are capable of doing. For example, as far as I know, not any two cards can be teamed. Typically it's server-based cards like the NC7771. We use the NC7781 on our server and it is Teaming capable but I can't imagine it being too different than the NC7771.

If your switch is Fast EtherChannel (Cisco) or Trunking (HP Procurve) capable you can enable a feature that allows the same MAC or IP address to be bound to two or four Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet NICs, providing parallel links. When this works, networking throughput can be quite fast.

What I've typically seen when setting up Teaming for Load Balancing (as opposed to failover) is you can configure either it for Transmit Load Balancing or Switch-Assisted Load Balancing. Transmit Load Balancing is load balanced for outgoing traffic only (i.e. TX). Switch-Assisted Load Balancing is load balanced for both incoming and outgoing traffic. What is important is the switch MUST be able to support this feature.

Sounds like you've basically got it set up as Transmit Load Balanced.

A few teaming tips to pass on:

1) Update the NIC drivers. Critical since a lot of what Teaming can and can't do is controlled by these drivers.

2) Not required but suggested you fix the IP address of the server's NIC cards and not rely on DHCP for an IP address

3) Not required but suggested you fix the speed of the cards. Do not use Auto Negotiate but set speed and duplex manual (e.g. 100 Mb/s Full-Duplex.

4) Check switch ports where the cards are plugged in. Configured correctly? Same speed and duplex? Is EtherChannel or Trunking enabled?

Good luck.

Rob

[server team]

Hey - thanks Rob for taking the time to reply and sharing your knowledge, thats great.

I'm working on a gigabit backup LAN and I am trying to get the best throughputs possible, so I will look into what you have suggested. Its a Cisco 3750.

I did manage to bring it all tumbling down by setting some of the client nics to a higher frame size.... Currently reversing those settings.

Thanks again Rob.

[Connery]

Mark,
As far as what NICs can be teamed together, we support teaming (using HP's Teaming driver) with any combination of HP ProLiant NC series adapters.

As far as information on what team types is best for you, I did a brain dump in a whitepaper specifically for HP teaming. It runs about 80 pages but is organized. Specifically, I recommend you look at figure 3-5 "What type of NIC Team do I need?" flowchart. It will help you decide the team type. From there, you can read more about that specific team type along with configuration guidelines.

Teaming Whitepaper link:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/networking/TeamingWP.pdf

Best regards,
-sean