Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters - Manual (Page 129)

Broadcom Teaming Services: Broadcom NetXtreme II® Network Adapter User Guide
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example, Port Fast, Edge Port) for the switch ports connected to a team.
3. All switches that the team is directly connected to must have the same hardware revision, firmware revision, and
software revision to be supported.
4. To be teamed, adapters should be members of the same VLAN. In the event that multiple teams are configured, each
team should be on a separate network.
5. Do not assign a Locally Administered Address on any physical adapter that is a member of a team.
6. Verify that power management is disabled on all physical members of any team.
7. Remove any static IP address from the individual physical team members before the team is built.
8. A team that requires maximum throughput should use LACP or GEC\FEC. In these cases, the intermediate driver is only
responsible for the outbound load balancing while the switch performs the inbound load balancing.
9. Aggregated teams (802.3ad \ LACP and GEC\FEC) must be connected to only a single switch that supports IEEE
802.3a, LACP or GEC/FEC.
10. It is not recommended to connect any team to a hub, as hubs only support half duplex. Hubs should be connected to a
team for troubleshooting purposes only. Disabling the device driver of a network adapter participating in an LACP or
GEC/FEC team may have adverse affects with network connectivity. Broadcom recommends that the adapter first be
physically disconnected from the switch before disabling the device driver in order to avoid a network connection loss.
11. Verify the base (Miniport) and team (intermediate) drivers are from the same release package. Dell does not test or
support mixing base and teaming drivers from different releases.
12. Test the connectivity to each physical adapter prior to teaming.
13. Test the failover and fallback behavior of the team before placing into a production environment.
14. When moving from a nonproduction network to a production network, it is strongly recommended to test again for
failover and fallback.
15. Test the performance behavior of the team before placing into a production environment.
16. Network teaming is not supported when running iSCSI traffic via Microsoft iSCSI initiator or iSCSI offload. MPIO should
be used instead of Broadcom network teaming for these ports.
17. For information on iSCSI boot and iSCSI offload restrictions, see iSCSI Protocol .
Troubleshooting Guidelines
Before you call Dell support, make sure you have completed the following steps for troubleshooting network connectivity
problems when the server is using adapter teaming.
1. Make sure the link light is ON for every adapter and all the cables are attached.
2. Check that the matching base and intermediate drivers belong to the same Dell release and are loaded correctly.
3. Check for a valid IP Address using the Windows ipconfig command.
4. Check that STP is disabled or Edge Port/Port Fast is enabled on the switch ports connected to the team or that LiveLink
is being used.
5. Check that the adapters and the switch are configured identically for link speed and duplex.
6. If possible, break the team and check for connectivity to each adapter independently to confirm that the problem is
directly associated with teaming.
7. Check that all switch ports connected to the team are on the same VLAN.
8. Check that the switch ports are configured properly for Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static type of
teaming and that it matches the adapter teaming type. If the system is configured for an SLB type of team, make sure
the corresponding switch ports are not configured for Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static types of teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Under what circumstances is traffic not load balanced? Why is all traffic not load balanced evenly across the team
members?
Answer: The bulk of traffic does not use IP/TCP/UDP or the bulk of the clients are in a different network. The receive load
balancing is not a function of traffic load, but a function of the number of clients that are connected to the server.
Question: What network protocols are load balanced when in a team?
Answer: Broadcom's teaming software only supports IP/TCP/UDP traffic. All other traffic is forwarded to the primary adapter.