Team configuration on Citrix & application servers

[Tim Adams2]

Hi

We've got a mix of Citrix and application servers which all have their NIC's (x2) teamed, but as Team Type Network Fault Tolerance.

My question is 1) would it not be better to use both channels/NICS all the time and if one fails redundancy would already be in place by the 2nd port being live and 2) can Citrix (PS4) cope with this or does it have a problem if client traffic comes back via the a different NIC ?

Many thanks

Tim

[Peter Karle]

Hi Tim,

regarding 1)
TEAMING means, a new, virtual adapter with a virtual MAC is created. This adapter is to configured with IP settings. IP settings on the member NICs (physical) is removed.
NFT enabled means one NIC is active, the other is passive. You should plug both NICs since in case of failure, the NFT switches easily to the former passive NIC and you reduce the "downtime" to less than 2 sec.
I guess you're a bit confusing with TRUNKING, where you can use both NICs at the same time (2 GB/s). To get this work you'll have to configure this on your switch

regarding 2)
Citrix as well as all other applications only know the virtual MAC which remains the same, no matter which NIC is physically in use.

Hope this helps, Peter

[Chris Rosan]

I was actually looking at this about 30 minutes ago.

From what i understand from reading the help in thee teaming utility, you basically need to pay for HP's "Proliant essentials intelligent networking pack". Not sure of the cost's. It uses CDP (with Cisco switches) to make it all work.

If you don't buy that you can try the other options. There is a fair bit of info in the help of the utility you can read.

I'm actually setting this up this weekend with implementing new switches so i'll try and reply next week with how & what we do.

[Peter Karle]

Chris: "From what i understand from reading the help in thee teaming utility, you basically need to pay for HP's "Proliant essentials intelligent networking pack". Not sure of the cost's. It uses CDP (with Cisco switches) to make it all work."

That's not true!
With the purchase of an ING licence you gain access to an extra portion of software/tools within the driver that enables you to configure more detailed scaleability, manageability, etc.

Teaming is a basic function of the driver that works without ING license!

Regards, Peter

[Chris Rosan]

Peter,

In the version i've got it doesn't let you do anything other than active/passive failover without paying for the extra licence. So yes you're correct, you don't have to have the extra licence for teaming, but i was referring to the 6 or so different teaming methods it has, which it doesn't let you access.