Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters User Manual
Page 10
Configuring Teaming in Windows Server: Broadcom NetXtreme II® Network Adapter User Guide
file:///C|/Users/Nalina_N_S/Documents/NetXtremeII/English/teaming.htm[9/5/2014 3:44:58 PM]
Failover teaming provides redundant adapter operation (fault tolerance) in the event that a network connection fails. If the
primary adapter in a team is disconnected because of failure of the adapter, cable, or switch port, the secondary team
member becomes active, redirecting both inbound and outbound traffic originally assigned to the primary adapter. Sessions
will be maintained, causing no impact to the user.
Limitations of Smart Load Balancing and Failover/SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) Types
of Teams
Smart Load Balancing™ (SLB) is a protocol-specific scheme. The level of support for IP, IPX, and NetBEUI protocols is listed in
Table 1: Smart Load Balancing
Operating System
Failover/Fallback — All Broadcom Failover/Fallback — Multivendor
Protocol
IP
IPX
NetBEUI
IP
IPX
NetBEUI
Windows Server 2008
Y
Y
N/S
Y
N
N/S
Windows Server 2008 R2 Y
Y
N/S
Y
N
N/S
Windows Server 2012
Y
Y
N/S
Y
N
N/S
Operating System
Load Balance — All Broadcom
Load Balance — Multivendor
Protocol
IP
IPX
NetBEUI
IP
IPX
NetBEUI
Windows Server 2008
Y
Y
N/S
Y
N
N/S
Windows Server 2008 R2 Y
Y
N/S
Y
N
N/S
Windows Server 2012
Y
Y
N/S
Y
N
N/S
Legend Y = yes
N = no
N/S = not supported
The Smart Load Balancing type of team works with all Ethernet switches without having to configure the switch ports to any
special trunking mode. Only IP traffic is load-balanced in both inbound and outbound directions. IPX traffic is load-balanced in
the outbound direction only. Other protocol packets are sent and received through one primary interface only. Failover for
non-IP traffic is supported only for Broadcom network adapters. The Generic Trunking type of team requires the Ethernet
switch to support some form of port trunking mode (for example, Cisco's Gigabit EtherChannel or other switch vendor's Link
Aggregation mode). The Generic Trunking type of team is protocol-independent, and all traffic should be load-balanced and
fault-tolerant.
NOTE: If you do not enable LiveLink™ when configuring SLB teams, disabling Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) or enabling
Port Fast at the switch is recommended. This minimizes the downtime due to the spanning tree loop determination when
failing over. LiveLink mitigates such issues.
Teaming and Large Send Offload/Checksum Offload Support
Large Send Offload (LSO) and Checksum Offload are enabled for a team only when all of the members support and are
configured for the feature.