Question

How to configure an XP workstation with two NIC's as a multi-home with two network names.

Asked by: siliconbrit

The scnenario is a network with 25 XP Pro SP2 workstations and a couple of Windows 2003 servers, all connected through a single router.  The customer operates 24 hours a day, so there is no quiet time.

Each workstation must be backed up with a complete drive image twice a week.  To spread the load, each workstation has it's own backup date/time.  But whenever a workstation backup process is running, the network bandwidth takes a significant hit.  The load on the workstations remains low as they are each running a proprietary application in 'kiosk' mode that includes it's own web browser, and Outlook 2003 connected to an exchange server.  No other applications are running on the clients.

The customer is about to double the workstations, so we are considering introducing a second network for backup and maintenance traffic only.  Each workstation will receive a second NIC, connected to that network.

I haven't done this on a Windows box before, only unix, so my question is this:

1) Are there any special considerations or configuration items I need to know about?

2) Is it possible for an XP workstation to have two network names within the Network Explorer.  For example, say the Computer Name is "W-XYZ1" on the existing NIC, would it be possible to configure a second name "B-XYZ1" on the new NIC that will appear in the Network neighborhood of a server running on that same subnet?

3) Is it possible for the workstation to be in two domains, or even workgroups to facilitate this.

Any information on this subject will be appreciated.

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Asked On
2007-05-23 at 10:39:47ID22590648
Tags

xp

,

two

,

windows

,

nics

Topics

Windows Networking

,

Windows XP Operating System

,

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

Participating Experts
4
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: Tingram81Posted on 2007-05-23 at 10:47:06ID: 19143473

i would think 1 would be a windows network, connecting the computers to the domain and sharing of data. a seperate on a diffrent IP scheme would connect to a diffrent network for backups.
Having a computer with 2 nics on the same network under the same ip or domain would cause network loops.

 

by: trickz_2Posted on 2007-05-23 at 10:56:21ID: 19143582

I don't believe it is possible to have a computer as part of multiple domains or workgroups and i don't think you need to . Given your scenario, going to add additional nics for imaging purposes, you should also connect them to a switch that is not connected to the rest of the production network. I would guess you will also be adding another nic or moving the imaging server to the backup network. The best option would be to just use a different address scheme than your production network and set up your imaging to be done by IP address and hard code all of your addresses. The image process will run on the second network to your image server on that network and none of that traffic will hit your production network.

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2007-05-23 at 11:12:53ID: 19143719

You might even need to go as far as hard coiding a route to the backup server on the secondary subnet, just in case you start to have routing issues....

You can use the 'route add' command.....

 

by: budchawlaPosted on 2007-05-23 at 11:12:55ID: 19143721

I agree with trickz... as long as you've got the 2nd NIC connected to a different switch (or VLAN) you should be fine. You can even run DHCP & DNS on your backup server, (but again as above, I would suggest using a different subnet to the production network)... so you wouldn't have to hard-code IP addresses etc, using hostnames will remain a viable option... in fact, depending on what method your current system uses, you may not even have to reconfigure a whole lot.. plug in new NIC, connect to backup network, set up server with DHCP & DNS and away you go! sounds nice anyway :-)

 

by: budchawlaPosted on 2007-05-23 at 11:15:15ID: 19143748

johnb6767,
would you anticipate issues with just having the 2nd NIC connected to a separate physical network? I've done this before on XP workstations and they seemed to manage the routing pretty well.. never had to flush a cache or configure static routes...

 

by: trickz_2Posted on 2007-05-23 at 11:29:00ID: 19143842

Bud,
I have done this as well in windows and i had the same experience as you, it seemed to work pretty good with no configuration issues.

 

by: siliconbritPosted on 2007-06-04 at 03:17:40ID: 19207308


Thanks every one for all your answers.  I don't have a complete solution yet, but most of the information I need is in 'trickz_2''s post.  Let me explain why:

Just to be clear - this client is small and has little money.  For this reason, we only have Microsoft Backup to work with.

In the current configuration, MS Backup runs (on the server) against the root of each C:/ drive, which are permanently mounted on the server.  If I move the backup process onto a second network, the network shared C: drives will not be visible as part of a Workgroup, so we need an alternative way to mount those drives across the backup network.  I haven't done this in XP or Server 2003, so if anyone knows how...

Alternatively, we can run MS Backup on the workstations themselves at pre-configured times, and script to copy the resulting backup files onto the server over the backup network.  Again, the target drive on the server will need to be accesible over this second NIC, which sounds like it will not be part of any Microsoft Network, so how to configure??

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