HP Teaming NICs on Proliant Server

[Geoff Collins]

Hi

I'm using a number of ML370 G3 and DL360 servers. We've built them using Smartstart 7.01 and Windows Server 2003 Standard edition.

After installation is complete the configuration of the HP Teaming defaults to load balancing. In the past (using an older version of Smartstart) it defaulted to Fault Tolerance. All's fine since we want Load Balancing anyway. Each of the nics are connected to separate Cisco 3500 series Catalyst switches (but I dont think that's important).

The problem I have is that network performance is poor. It is noticeably slower with both interfaces connected than just one. Additionally ICMP (ping etc) is very sporadic. Sometimes it will go into phases of not working and the only way to kick it back into action is to disconnect / reconnect the network leads.

This is not limited to the one server and is not common to one switch or subnet.

I suspect that it is something to do with the new version of the HP Teaming software as we have a number of W2000 servers running using Loadbalancing without issue.

Any help that you can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks

Geoff Collins

[JohnWRuffo · Accepted solution]

Geoff:

Here is the latest version of the Teaming Util (version 7.60 dated April 14, 2004):
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/19608.html

You may need to update the driver versions for the NIC's as well:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/69_4307.html#12

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/69_4764.html#12

[Geoff Collins]

Thanks - I'll try that and let you know...

Geoff

[Bill Parker_3]

Check your controls in the team properties, if you're using Transmit LB you should not have a problem, but switch-assisted will certaily cause this type of problem if not properly configured.

This also sounds like it could be a STP (SpanTree) issue. I'd check with the network team if you have one. If not, and you're not sure about the mgt of those 3500s I'd just use AFT (Fail on fault) and go back to one. Your recieve speeds will be the same, transmit down a little, but you're still fault tolerant.

[Geoff Collins]

Hmmm

I'm already on LB Transmit, so it can't be that. The drivers didnt seem to make any difference but I'm not that surprised since the issue isnt listed in the fix list...

What is the potenetial issue with Spanning tree?

Cheers for your help

Geoff

[Craig Conway_1]

Have you checked the switch port configuration, particularily in respect to etherchannel. LB in the HP teaming utility is the same as FEC in the cisco world.

[Schlumpf Christoph]

Thanks

I found this solution in Microsoft KB. I like more to solve problems, than to prevent from error messages. But it seems to be the only solution for now. I upgraded the NIC driver and the network configuration utility (Rel. 7.7), but this does not help:-(

[Marcelo Pagano]

Craig Conway wrote:
..."LB in the HP teaming utility is the same as FEC in the cisco world"...
can anybody explain it?