VRRP, MSTP and multinetted server

[Yan Henrichon]

Hi all.

I have two 3500yl. VRRP and MSTP will be activated on both of them. A trunk will be created between them and all the VLANs will be tag on that trunk.

On multinetted servers (two nics), if I plug one nic to a switch and the another nic to the second switch, will I still have the same performance of my network teaming on the server? Does this configuration enables a redundant access to this server?

Thank you for your help.

[Pieter 't Hart · Accepted solution]

>>> multinetted servers (two nics), <<<

terminology:
multinet is commonly used on divices using multiple subnets on the same (v)lan, not for multiple network adapters.

back to the question:
most likely won't have the same performance!

when the NIC's are connected to the same switch you can configure this link as load balanncing etherchannel so both ports can be used simultanuously.
if your you NIC's are teamed, and connected to different switches, the team is fault-tolerant only (failover)!
only one NIC is active at a time for all traffic, no load balancing.

[Yan Henrichon]

Pieter,

Thank you for you answer. I was wrong about multinetted server. I meant multihomed :).

[Yan Henrichon]

Pieter,

For the loadbalancing etherchannel, I never seen this kind of configuration on the switch. Do I have to do it on the server side or switch side?

Thank you.

[Pieter 't Hart]

Load balancing etherchannel must be done at both sides of the link.

from management and config guide page 12-27:
>>>
The two trunk group options (LACP and Trunk) use source-destination address pairs (SA/DA) for distributing outbound traffic over trunked links.
SA/DA (source address/destination address) causes the switch to distribute
outbound traffic to the links within the trunk group on the basis of source/
destination address pairs.
<<<

If your server is Proliant, you can set the team config to "auto" (maybe other brands offer such option too).
as the switch supports IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) and both nics are connected to the same switch, the team will form automatically.

I associate multihomed with multiple NIC's each in it's own subnet.
A network team acts as a single NIC with a single subnet (unless you make it vlan-aware).

[Mohammed Faiz]

You might also want to consider Distibuted Trunking (supported on K.14 code) which should allow you to load-balance across links to different switches.
Check out the manual pages here:

http://cdn.procurve.com/training/Manuals/3500-5400-6200-6600-8200-MCG-Sept09-12-PortTrunk.pdf

[Pieter 't Hart]

thanks for this info, Mohammed.

regards,
Pieter

[Yan Henrichon]

Thank you everyone for your comments.

Yan.