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DuraLAN Fast Ethernet NICs User’s Guide
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How does Duralink64 Port Aggregation work?
For all protocols, Duralink64 Port Aggregation effectively
distributes transmit traffic among all ports within a Port
Aggregation group. The Duralink64 Port Aggregation driver
assigns a primary port to the Port 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.
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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 since there
are at least two contributing members of each Port 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 Port 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.
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What NICs support Duralink64 Port Aggregation?
Adaptec's ANA-6x011/TX, ANA-6x022, and ANA-6x044 NICs
support Duralink64 Port Aggregation.
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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.
