TCPIP 5.4 NIC teaming

[Andrew John King]

Hi,

I know that there have been a few forums about this subject, but I can't find the right answer for my issue.

We have a ES47 with twin NIC, but am currently only using 1 NIC for network connection, but would like to activate the second NIC and configured Load Balancing, so that VMS 7.3-2 with TCPIP 5.4 is using both NICs for send and recieving data to the local network. I have looked at FailSAFE IP and this appears to be a Redundancy setup and unable to link 2 NICs for simultaneous working.

Can you please details if there is a solution and if so have this is implemented and setup details?

Thanking you in advance.

Andy K.

[Ian Miller.]

failsafe IP and failover sets are both for redundancy and not load balancing.

You can configure the two interfaces with separate addresses and use the load balancing feature if you have a DNS server that can cope with the updates (such as the one in HP TCP/IP for OpenVMS product).

[Andrew John King]

Ian,

Thanks for you answer. We don't want to use multiple IP address as a solution, so will look at using MultiNet once I have confirmed that it can provide the solution we are looking for.

Andy K

[Ian Miller.]

I would be interest in knowing if MULTINET can do this. I am mostly familiar with the HP product.

[Richard Whalen]

MultiNet and TCPware both provide this functionality with their "common_link" functionality. When a packet is queued to a configured interface the interface is first checked for functionality, then the transmit queue length is checked before placing the packet on the queue.

Using multiple interfaces for load balancing does have some side effects: an increase in packets delivered out of order and changing ARP information.

Richard Whalen

[Andrew John King]

Richard,

Thanks for the thumbs on the MultiNet and the warning about the side affects. Am waiting for prices for latest release from supplier and depending on cost, might migrate over to using MultNet unless there are other issues. It is best to replace TCPIP with MultiNet, or run them in parallel?

[Richard Whalen]

MultiNet and TCP/IP services can't be run in parallel on a single system - it's a pure either/or choice. Separate nodes in a cluster can run different IP stacks, though I would recommend separate system disks so that command line definitions don't get confuseds. Applications should not notice the difference, though you may have to manually configure some servers that were previously installed into TCP/IP Services or that the installation procedure doesn't handle MultiNet. Customer support should be able to help you with any server configuration issues.

[Volker Halle]

Andy,

if an HP OpenVMS TCPIP node has multiple LAN interfaces into the same subnet, it uses an automatic algorithm to load balance outgoing connections via the available interfaces.

Volker.

[Andrew John King]

Volker,

I am trying to setup the VMS server to have 2 NICs or more both sending and recieving data, but also to act a fail over should a cable ot switch die for any reason and hence enable the users to continue to work as if nothing had happened. This is why I am trying to confirm if MultiNet is able to provide this service. It would be the same a Network Teaming as you would on a Windows server with 2 NICs or more.

Thanks for you advise.

[Volker Halle]

Andy,

you could set up 2 NICs (with their own IP adresses) and assign a single failSAFE IP address to both of them. This address will be active on one interface at a time and will be used for incoming connections and will provide you with failover capability. Outgoing connections should be automatically load-balanced across the 2 NICs - assuming they have IP adresses in the same subnet.

Volker.