HP NIC Teaming and Cisco 6506 switches

[neil diesel]

I have several servers(windows 2003R2 domain) connected via the 2 NICs to 2 core cisco 6506 switches and am experiencing problems when the servers bootup. the servers sit on the apping computer settings screen for a long period(about 5 - 10 minutes).Some of the services fail to start once i can log in i can start the services manually with no problem, it seems they cannot get network connectivity to the DC's for authentication. I have moved all teh servers into a edge switch cisco 2960 and here i exprence no trouble, it all works as expected. I have tried all team types but have had no joy. It wolud seem that there is some configuration on the cisco 6506 causing the problem can anyone advise on what this may be
thanks

[Mohieddin Kharnoub]

Hi Neil

1- Are you using Cisco Server Load Balancing (SLB) by let the Cisco 6506 assing Virtual IP for a Virtual Server combines of all your Server Farm.

In this Case, Check SLB configuration on the Both of the Cisco 6506.

2- Or you are just connecting Each NIC in the server to the cisco switches.

In this case are you using Trunking configuration for Higher speed (Then check Trunk configuration between Cisco 6506 and Servers).
And if you are not using Trunking, then you are connecting each NIC to the 6506, so you have multiple Subnets and you have additional work involved because most machines will have to be reconfigured to take into account the split, and to know that traffic destined for the other subnet must now be routed through the router instead of being sent directly.


More explaination or if possible a network diagram will be helpfull my dear.

Good Luck!!!

[Anders_35]

Neil,

I'm no Cisco-expert, but two wuestions spring to mind:

First, did you try this without the teaming?
Do you have the same problem then?

Secondly, do you have PortFast enabled on the switch ports?

[neil diesel]

I am connecting one nic to each switch( we have 2 6506 switches) and using Network fault tolerance only wit preferance
Port fast is on on the ports and the speed has been fixed to 1000 full but still no joy

[neil diesel]

I have tried with only one member of the team plugged in and all is well the problem only occurs when both nics are patched in. i also get the problem when both nics are patched into one of the switches. I am told that we cannot trunk the ports between switches as trunking the ports would have been a possible solution

[neil diesel]

It seems i have found that applying the latest support pack solve the issue, the servers were built with smartstart 7.40 and after applying psp ver 7.51a the servers boot up normally on the cisco 6506 switches
thanks for your input, i probably should have tried this first !!!
Thanks