is it possible to Team NIC's for iSCSI ports?

[sugar_2]

Hi to all, I was wondering if its possible to TEAM two or more NIC's in Windows 2003 for the iSCSI ports, or they must be a single one NIC for each iSCI port?

thanks in advance =)

[sugar_2]

Note:
For this setup I have

- Two DL380G6 Servers
- One MSA 2012i (with two controllers)
- Windows 2003 Enterprise R2
- Two ProCurve 3400 CL Giga Switches

[Uwe Zessin]

Microsoft does not like NIC teaming ;-)

They ask you to configure both NICs in their iSCSI initiator with MPIO.

(What do you mean by 'iSCSI port'?)

[sugar_2]

I am sorry if I didn't explained correctly,

I have a server with 8 giga NIC's, I setup in Teams (Load balanced and Failover withour need to program switch) of two for each network connection, for instance:
- Team#1 with two NIC's is for subnet 192.168.10.0
- Team#2 with two NIC's is for subnet 172.10.2.0

They are working great, but when I tried to do the same for the NIC's that are connected to the iSCSI SAN giga switch, it didn't worked, so I am not sure if I can do the NIC teamming for the iSCSI NIC's...

[sugar_2]

I forgot to mention that I attached a screen cap of My current NIC Team.

[Uwe Zessin]

I think the Transmit Load Balancing (TLB) causes the same MAC address (of the pseudo interface) to be sent across both physical NIC ports. That only works when you connect both NICs to one switch or a pair of 'stacked' switches.

Otherwise the switches become confuse because the same MAC addresses appear on multiple ports.

This will not happen when you don't use low-level adapter teaming, give each NIC port its own IP address and use the iSCSI initiator's load balancing.

[sugar_2]

ohhh, so I can add let's say add two NIC's for each iSCI adapter with their own IP and then use the iSCSI initiator failover?

what do you recommend me? Round Robin?

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

Yes, when you are on the "Add Target Portal" window you can press the [Advanced] button and then define which IP address(es) should connect to the target port.

I recommend you try out the initiator's simple failover and Round Robin to see what work's best for you.

[sugar_2]

thanks a lot! I will try it =)

[sugar_2]

I am reading that in order to setup the Windows 2003 cluster I need to create an independent network for cluster communication heartbeat (in a different subnet that my other networks), my question is: can I create that network using one of my existing HP Proliant switches that I use for iSCSI? will that create network conflicts or must I use a separated network switch dedicated for heartbit network?

[Uwe Zessin]

There won't be a conflict if you use different IP addresses/ IP Subnets.

[sugar_2]

Thanks again!

[sugar_2]

One more question about the clustering, I am reading in Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/258750 Recommended private "Heartbeat" configuration on a cluster server), it says that its recommended to have two heratbeat networks, I am kind of confused what that means, does that means this: ?

- Private network (from server 1 NIC to server 2 NIC using a crossover cable)
- Public network (one using a regular network switch)

Also says that both networks needs to be on a different subnet, can I setup them like this: ?
- Private subnet 192.168.50.0
- Public subnet 192.168.60.0

thanks in advance!

[Uwe Zessin]

I am not an MSCS specialist, but I think they mean:
- public network
- private network 1
- private network 2

As far as I can tell, yes, you can configure the heartbeat on the public network if you don't have enough NIC ports.


192.168.50.0 and 192.168.60.0 is OK if the network mask is something like 255.255.255.0 (which is typical for this range).

[sugar_2]

Thanks for the explanation but I am still confused on what means *Public and *Private networks regarding Clustering?

Does Private means NIC-to-NIC and does Public means NIC-Switch-NIC scenario?

[Uwe Zessin]

A private network is a network limited to the cluster members. A public network can be used for cluster intercommunication, too, but it's main use is to provide client access - e.g. to file server or database services on the cluster member(s).