NIC Teaming to 4000M

[Bob Fultz]

I have an issue with teaming to a ProCurve 4000M switch. The server is a ML350 G4 with a NC7760 and a NC7770 connected to a Procurve 4000M. The switch has firmware C.09.09. Both Nic's have the 8.39.1.0 driver. The server runs Windows 2000 SP4. The switch has two ports set to FE and the NIC's are teamed and IP addresses are assigned. Everything looks fine, however, when I connect the second NIC to the switch, the system goes to a crawl. I don't have an analyzer but it looks like the network might be getting flooded. In failover mode it works fine.

[Robert S. Carr]

Bob:

NIC Teaming seems to be a frequent problem for a lot of admins and if you end up abandoning it, except for failover, don't feel so bad. For WinOSes it seems to be more problematic.

That being said you can try a few ideas to see if this will get Teaming to work properly.

1) You already mentioned it but yes, those using static IP addresses have more success with teaming. Stick with that strategy at least until the problem is solved.

2) Another tip that has worked well for me is to use a static speed for the server NICs. Do not use Auto Negotiate. It's a time waster. Set both NICs to 100 Mb/s Full Duplex. I'm not familiar with the 4000M but if you can login to it and check port speed do so. Make sure it is at 100Mb/s & full-duplex.

3) Teaming is very sensitive regarding DNS data. Two adapters must use the same DNS data. If out of sync Teaming can experience problems. To sync the adaptors

i) Disable teaming. Disable the second adaptor.

ii) At the command prompt

ipconfig 0 /registerdns

iii) Now enable the second adaptor and at the cmd prompt

ipconfig 1 /registerdns

iv) Re-enable teaming. See if this helps.

Using /registerdns will initiates manual dynamic registration for the DNS names and IP addresses that are configured at a computer.

see http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ipconfig.mspx?mfr=true

You mentioned you are using Win2K. In the Start menu under Administrative Tools you should find Microsoft Network Monitor. Here you can see what packets are flying around your LAN.

Hope this helps.

Rob

[Bob Fultz]

Thanks. Give me something to do this weekend while everyone is off the system. I will see if it helps.