Does APA require homogeneous HW?

[Enrico Venturi]

Hello colleagues,
does Automatic Port Aggregation require that main and spare cards are of the same type?
Or we can protect a 1 Gigabyte card with a 10MByte one?


regards
Enrico

[Ivajlo Yanakiev]

Read this :
http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/adapters/apa_prodbrief.html

if you need more info let me know

[Enrico Venturi]

I just needed an answer to my question :-)
I knew that there was a document....
the fact is:
I can or I cannot?

[Ivajlo Yanakiev · Accepted solution]

Generaly it is good idea that you use same addapter. But answer on you question is YES
You can use different addapter :)

[Pete Randall]

Enrico,

Here's a quote from the "HP APA Support Guide"
http://docs.hp.com/cgi-bin/fsearch/framedisplay?top=/hpux/onlinedocs/J4240-90027/J4240-90027_top.html&con=/hpux/onlinedocs/J4240-90027/00/00/1-con.html&toc=/hpux/onlinedocs/J4240-90027/00/00/1-toc.html&searchterms=%20%20HP%20Auto%20Port%20Aggregation%20%28APA%29%20Support%20Guide&queryid=20041206-052701

"# 100BT or Gigabit devices may be used in the link aggregation. However, all the devices in the link aggregation must be of one type, 100BT or Gigabit. And the physical devices in the link aggregation must be configured for the same speed and duplex. (Note: EISA 100BT devices are not supported.)"

I think it sounds like they need to be the same!


Pete

[Enrico Venturi]

Thanks a lot!!

I'm interested in the LAN monitor mode.....

[Alzhy]

Yes you can but that will mean forcinfg the speed of your highest speed LAN NIC to match the lowest speed. In your scenario - that would mean configuring your 1G NIC to math your 10Mbps NIC .. which I think is utterly senseless in the first place.

If you use a non-APA approach (ie. via watchdog scripts that will bring up the 10Mbps when death on the 1Gbps is detected) you can have each of the NIC operating at its highest rated speed...


HTH

[Pete Randall]

Just to make really sure, here's another quote:

"Planning Your HP APA Configuration


1. Before configuring HP APA, obtain the following information:
* Determine which network physical interfaces installed in the HP server can be used for the HP APA link aggregation.
Only those interfaces supported by HP APA can be used. All 100BT interfaces except the EISA 100BT interfaces are supported. Please note that EISA 100BT does not exist on HP-UX 11i v2, and HP-PB 100BT doesn't exist on 11i v2. All Gigabit interfaces are supported.
All link aggregation devices must be of the same type: all 100BT or all 1000BASE-x.
All the devices in the link aggregation must be configured for the same speed and duplex."

You definitely can't mix and definitely not 10BT at all.



Pete