IBM x Series 200 - Manual (Page 75)

Installing options
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supports packet tagging. The routing devices receiving and transferring these packets
on your network must support 802.1p for tagging to be effective.
After you set up the priority filter in Priority Packet, you must start IBMSet and select
802.1p/802.1Q Tagging
on the Advanced tab.
Note: IEEE 802.1p tagging increases the size of the packets it tags. Some hubs and
switches will not recognize the larger packets and will drop them. Check your
hub or switch documentation to see if they support 802.1p. (You can configure
the switch to strip the tags from the packets and send it on to the next
destination as normal traffic.) If these devices do not support 802.1p, or if you
are not sure, use high priority queue (HPQ) to prioritize network traffic.
The requirements for effectively using IEEE 802.1p tagging are:
• The other devices receiving and routing 802.1p tagged packets must support
802.1p.
• The adapters on these devices must support 802.1p. The Ethernet controller in
your xSeries 200 and all IBM 10/100 Ethernet Security Adapters support 802.1p.
• The adapter cannot be assigned to an adapter team.
• If you are setting up virtual local area networks (VLANs) and packet tagging on
the same adapter, 802.1p/802.1Q tagging must be enabled on the IBMSet
Advanced tab.
If your network infrastructure devices do not support IEEE 802.1p or you are not sure,
you can still define filters and send packets as high priority. While HPQ does not
provide the precise priority levels of 802.1p tagging, it does assign traffic as either
high or low priority and sends high priority packets first. Therefore, if there are
multiple applications on a system sending packets, the packets from the application
with a filter are sent out first. HPQ does not change network routing, nor does it add
any information to the packets.
To assign HPQ, you can specify it using Priority Packet when you create or assign a
filter.
To effectively use HPQ, the adapter cannot be assigned to an adapter team.
Virtual LAN Mode: A virtual LAN is a logical grouping of network devices put
together as a LAN, regardless of their physical grouping or collision domains. Using
VLANs increases network performance and improves network security.
VLANs offer you the ability to group users and devices together into logical
workgroups. This can simplify network administration when connecting clients to
servers that are geographically dispersed across the building, campus, or enterprise
network.
Typically, VLANs are configured at the switch and any computer can be a member of
one VLAN per installed network adapter. Your Ethernet controller supersedes this by
communicating directly with the switch, enabling multiple VLANs on a single
network adapter (up to 64 VLANs).
To set up VLAN membership, your Ethernet controller must be attached to a switch
that has VLAN capability. You also need to use Windows NT 4.0 or later, or Novell
NetWare 4.1x or later.
Notes:
1. Windows NT versions prior to 4.0 do not support VLANs.
2. VLANs require NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3.0 and the network driver interface
specification (NDIS) driver hotfix from Microsoft.