Greetings:
We have an IBM System x3500 M2 running Windows Server 2008 R2. It has 2 Broadcom BCM5709C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBD Client) network adapters with 2 ports each. We'd like to team 2 ports together to give a greater throughput for the machine.
After some research, I found we needed the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite and the Broadcom Advanced Server Program to accomplish this in Windows 2008 R2. I originally found the updated drivers at IBM and Version 3 of the BACS. The drivers worked, but when I went to team, only 1 adapter had the correct NDIS driver for teaming (v6.2). The others were at version 5.1. I could not team.
So I researched again, and found a driver update and the appropriate BACS and BASP packages from Qlogic. I installed them. This updated the drivers to a newer version and BACS to version 4.
The BASP utility is supposed to install/update the appropriate NDIS drivers to make teaming possible. However, after installing the newer drivers and BACS, all the adapters are now at 5.1, and the BACS utility needs at least NDIS v.6 driver to team. I cannot figure out how to update the NDIS driver. The BASP was supposed to do that, but did not. I know the adapters support it, because one of them had the v6.2 driver originally.
I really don't want to spend the $$$ to update to Windows 2012 yet.
Any ideas on how to get the NDIS driver to update in Windows Server 2008 R2 so we can team our NICs?
Thanks!
Jerry Scott
IT Manager
Independent Farmers Bank
admin@farmbank.net
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=77777777-0000-0000-0000-000014710160