How many network Cards I need

[yuping xu]

Hi,

I have a HP rp4440 server with two A9782A cards and two A5838A cards. If I need six NICs, do you think total 4 cards with 6 LAN ports are enough to meet my requirement? I was told that the 1000Base-SX port on A9782A card only can be used for NAS not for other LAN connection. I need to verify if that was right advice.

Thanks
Yuping

[Geoff Wild · Accepted solution]

On this page:

http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/storagesnf2/multifunction_adapters/multifunction.html

Says you can use the NIC for anything.

The A5838A is only 100 FDX.

As far as what you need - do you need 6 lans running?

Do you need failover?

Are you going to use APA?

Maybe go for a couple of quad 1000 based T cards instead:

AB545A

http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/adapters/ethernet/index.html



Rgds...Geoff

[yuping xu]

Hi Geoff,

Thank you very much for your help. You are very helpful.
The server is a repurposed server, a direction is to use as much existing server hardware as possible, therefore, I may need to stick with the two types of cards. But anyway thank you for your advice to use faster cards.
Regarding the number of NICs, based on my knowledge of the network standard I need to follow, I need total four NICs. Two NICs for front-end (one for pmiramay and other for failover); One NIC for back-end and other for backup/restore. And actually later today I got confirmation from other SMEs in my group; the four NICs are right number.
With the four NICs, I need 5 IPs. One NIC for primary front-end IP and secondary front-end IP; second NIC for front-end failover IP; third NIC for back-end IP and fourth NIC for backup/restore.
I was advised to install APA for NIC failover thing, which I think it is correct advice. What else do you think I need install for NIC failover.

Thanks
Yuping

[Geoff Wild]

Well - for APA - just ensure that you split your LAN connections to different switches.

Make sure you read up on APA and that your lan cards are supported.

http://docs.hp.com/en/J4240-90035/index.html

Also you can not mix different types of cards with APA.


Rgds...Geoff