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NIC Teaming Basics

Hi,

I'm new to the concept of NIC redundancy.

Here's my scenario:
I have DELL R710s.
Some of these DELL servers will be set up as Windows 2008 Enterprise R2 servers, and some will be setup as VMware ESXi hosts.

I'll have TWO Cisco 3560 Catalyst Core switches for the purposes of redundancy. We have outsourced a couple of Cisco engineers to setup these swtiches so that there is fault tolerance.

Now for the servers, I wanted to know what is the best practice for teaming the NICs. All ethernet adaptors are Broadcom. Each server has come with 4 NICs, but I'd like to team only 2 at a time, as some servers may be required to connect to 2 seperate VLANs.

Appreciate the help.

Best Regards,
CV

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Maen Abu-Tabanjeh

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gmbaxter

Your cisco switches will likely be stacked together to appear as one virtual switch.

So instead of switch one interface 1 - 24 and switch two interface 1 -24, you'll have:

switch int 1/0/1 - 24 and 2/0/1 - 24

I would create a port channel for each server, and use one port on each switch in each port channel. So server 1 uses 1/0/1 and 2/0/1, server 2 uses 1/0/2 and 2/0/2 etc.... This way you have a 2 gigabit redundant link to each server, which will tolerate cable, NIC, and switch failure.

Create the port channel:

ssh or telnet onto core switch stack
en
cont f
int gigabit ethernet 1/0/1
description Server 1 port 1
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan ?
channel-group 1 mode on
no shutdown

int gigabit ethernet 2/0/1
description Server 1 port 2
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan ?
channel-group 1 mode on
no shutdown

int port-channel1
description Server 1 Port Channel

Thats the switch side done, now for the servers - For Windows;

Install Broadcom Advanced Server Program (Broadccom Advanced Control Suite) http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/management_applications.php

And create a team that uses FEC/GEC Generic Trunking

This is a proven setup on our Dell servers with broadcom NICs.

As for VMWare, I'd replicate the above (except the broadcom bit), and look at networking options within ESXi itself.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Thanks.

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