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HP Teaming on Proliant Servers using windows 2008

Hi I have been trying to setup HP Teaming on some Proliant Servers running windows 2008 Server. I used the HP Teaming software to Team 2 onboard 1gbit Cards. It creates the Team with no problems and I then get a 3rd network card apperar connecting at 2 Gb's. Once I have done this most of the newrok runs fine but the servers start to loose packekts to certain types of routers and old PC,s etc. As soon as I disable it the pings come back and does not drop any packects.

I have setup HP Teaming a few times and never really understood exactly how it works. Does it give you a true 2 GB connection or does it just split the traffic over both cards? Also do you not have to Trunk the ports on the switch to get this to work properly.

What Im really trying to get at apart from the issues I have been having is does Teaming the cards speed up the Network for the clients etc. I have rang HP about this and the issues and they were no help whatsover.

Thanks

HBP

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Darius Ghassem

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from_exp

why do you need 2 Gbps? are you sure, that server's network connection is a bottneneck (but not disk I/Os, not CPU, etc).

In all cases, after configuring teaming you will get new virtual adapter for which you have to configure IP settings.

HP does offer different types of teaming and first of them is fault tolerance. In this case only one network card is active at a time.
Second type of teaming is load balancing (with fault tolerance). Load balancing can be performed for outgoing packets only. In this case virtual MAC address appears on a switch on one port, then on other, then again on first. this can potentially make problems within your network, especially if teamed nics are connected to different non stacked switches.

Personally I would suggest to use 802.3ad (LACP) teaming, but it may require appropriate HP license. This type of teaming require your switches to be configured accordingly.

here is cisco generic manual:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk213/technologies_configuration_example09186a008089a821.shtml

hp info is here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01415139/c01415139.pdf

HBPROCK

ASKER

There is no bottleneck at the momment I though it was best to give the Servers the fatest connection possible and it does seam that windows 2008 SBS does run alot slower than 2003 SBS. So becasue the server come with 2 Network cards on board seems a waste not to set them up. I surpose I could set them up just for fault tolerence but would be nice to have both.

from_exp

If there is no bottleneck and you have only one switch, then there is no benefit in using both nics in team. even more - you make your configuration more complicated.

Darius Ghassem

Disable TCP Offload and IP Offload on the Network card properties under the Advanced tab after you click configure.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037