DL 380 G3 Nic Teaming Issue

[Jeremy_89]

Ok last night at 3:30 am I was rebooting all the 2003 Exchange servers, all was ok but all were not able to login to the domain.

The issue was the teamed NIC just stopped working it took awhile but I removed the team then reconfigure the IP and they started working.

I just ran in to the same issue on another dl380 G3 box, the team just stopped working. We got it working by removing the team, any one seen this before???

[Timothy Cusson]

I've had alot of strange problems after rebooting as well, I did the same, remove the teaming and everything is fine.

Does anyone know of a document that gives a step by step procedure for setting up teaming?

[Oleg Koroz]

What Driver Version you use and Teaming Release
In the past some related symptoms with older Software was found
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/search/search.jsp?locale=en_US&tx=NC7781

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/index.html

If all up to date additional look into the problem need


http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/networking/teaming.html
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/networking/whitepapers.html

[Prashant (I am Back)]

Hi

Seems to be the updating of the HP Network Configuration Utility on the server will resolve the issu. But did it logged any error messages on the server.

REgards,
Prashant S.

[Connery]

Jeremy,
1. Make sure you are running the latest version (8.10).
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/23351.html

2. Make sure you have spanning tree disabled on the switch ports that the server NICs are plugged into. After the NIC is initialized by the OS, spanning tree can keep the port in a transition state for close to a minute. This can affect things like joining the domain.

3. This whitepaper should have everything you need to know about setting up teaming. I wrote it for driver version 7.86. I updated it for 8.10 but the web folks haven't posted it yet.
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/networking/TeamingWP.pdf

4. If your problem persists, reply to this post with contact information and I'll help you get a case created. We will need the following info when creating the case:
- output of hpnetsvy.exe for the server in question. (this util gets installed with Teaming as of version 8.10).
- the output of "show tech-support" if you are using a Cisco switch. Otherwise, we need the configuration on the switch that you are connected to if not a Cisco.
- simple diagram showing which NICs are connected to which switch ports.

Best regards,
-sean

[Connery]

Adding a URL for item #1 above:
Teaming version 8.10 is located here - http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22706.html

[Jeremy_89]

I'll have to verify the version now that you ask Sean. We do use spanning tree on our switches, but that helps eliminate loops. I think this is more server/nic specific, I think you and others hit it on the head for versioning as an issue. Let's first look at that and I'll report back my findings.

Thanks for all the input folks.

[Connery]

Spanning Tree doesn't have to be enabled on server ports to eliminate loops - it's a switch to switch protocol. In fact, it causes lots of problems for PC and Servers.

Best practice is to use PortFast on Cisco switch ports directly connected to PCs and servers.

Here's an article from Cisco:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/12.html

Regards,
-sean

[Jeremy_89]

Thanks Sean,

We do use port fast. Actually, best practice is to turn on port fast everywhere except for switch to switch connections. Our entire company (verizon wireless) uses port fast along with spanning tree enabled, and we haven't seen any issues doing this. I will circle back with the standards team and bring this up as an action item.

[Connery]

If there is anything else I can assist with, please let me know.

I am in an HP development group responsible for ProLiant switches, NICs, NIC Teaming, etc. I am very interested in making sure your problem gets root caused and resolved.

Regards,
-sean