Adaptec ANA-62000 - Manual (Page 183)

B-9
Troubleshooting Tips
4 How does Duralink64 Port Aggregation work?
For all protocols, Duralink64 Port Aggregation effectively
balances transmit traffic among all ports of an aggregation
group. The Port Aggregation driver assigns a primary port to
the aggregation group and the protocol binds to that port. To
the protocol, the primary port is the only port. However, the
driver uses all the ports in the group to transmit packets to the
clients. Packets are generally received by the server via the
primary port, but in the case of NetBEUI, all ports receive and
transmit.
Duralink64 Port Aggregation requires connection to a switch
in order for the ports to be aggregated as one logical link
5 How does the failover portion of Duralink64 Port Aggregation
work?
Network fault tolerance means that a specific portion of the
network is able to tolerate a failure. Fault tolerance is a built-in
feature of the Duralink64 Port Aggregation product because
there are at least two contributing members of each
aggregation group. It is highly improbable that the server
connection will fail in this context.
If one port fails, the duties associated with the failed port are
redistributed to other members of the aggregation group. If the
primary port fails, another member of the group is assigned
the primary port's MAC address, minimizing impact to routers
and their routing tables. If the primary port comes back online,
the primary port's address is reassigned back to the primary
port.
6 What NICs support Duralink64 Port Aggregation?
Adaptec's ANA-69011/TX, ANA-62011/TX, ANA-62022, and
ANA-62044 NICs support Duralink64 Port Aggregation.
7 Which network switches support Duralink64 Port
Aggregation?
Duralink64 Port Aggregation has been tested with all the
leading vendors' switches. Duralink64 Port Aggregation
requires connection to a switch in order for the ports to be
aggregated as one logical link.