18–Configuring Teaming in Windows Server
Load Balancing and Fault Tolerance
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Smart Load Balancing and Failover
Smart Load Balancing and Failover is the QLogic implementation of load
balancing based on IP flow. This feature supports balancing IP traffic across
multiple adapters (team members) in a bidirectional manner. In this type of team,
all adapters in the team have separate MAC addresses. This type of team
provides automatic fault detection and dynamic failover to other team member or
to a hot standby member. This is done independently of Layer 3 protocol (IP, IPX,
NetBEUI); rather, it works with existing Layer 2 and 3 switches. No switch
configuration (such as trunk, link aggregation) is necessary for this type of team to
work.
Link Aggregation (802.3ad)
This mode supports link aggregation and conforms to the IEEE 802.3ad (LACP)
specification. Configuration software allows you to dynamically configure which
adapters you want to participate in a given team. If the link partner is not correctly
configured for 802.3ad link configuration, errors are detected and noted. With this
mode, all adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the same
MAC address. The outbound load-balancing scheme is determined by our ASP
driver. The team link partner determines the load-balancing scheme for inbound
packets. In this mode, at least one of the link partners must be in active mode.
NOTE
If you do not enable LiveLink when configuring SLB teams, disabling
STP or enabling Port Fast at the switch or port is recommended. This
minimizes the downtime due to spanning tree loop determination when
failing over. LiveLink mitigates such issues.
TCP/IP is fully balanced and IPX balances only on the transmit side of
the team; other protocols are limited to the primary adapter.
If a team member is linked at a higher speed than another, most of the
traffic is handled by the adapter with the higher speed rate.
NOTE
Link aggregation team type is not supported on ports with NPAR mode
enabled or iSCSI-Offload enabled. Some switches support FCoE-Offload in
LACP teaming mode. Consult your switch documentation for more
information.
Summary of Contents for 8400 Series
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