Cisco Cisco Nexus 5010 Switch Design Guide
Design Guide
Another important factor to consider when deploying teaming is that sometimes teaming software interferes with
Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) support. In some cases, then, you need to flash network adapters
to reset the iSCSI boot configuration and set it to preexecution environment (PXE) boot before you can use the NIC
teaming configurations. In the case of Intel controllers, you can use utilities such as the Intel Boot Agent Utility, ibautil,
from a bootable CD to flash the adapter: see
Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) support. In some cases, then, you need to flash network adapters
to reset the iSCSI boot configuration and set it to preexecution environment (PXE) boot before you can use the NIC
teaming configurations. In the case of Intel controllers, you can use utilities such as the Intel Boot Agent Utility, ibautil,
from a bootable CD to flash the adapter: see
.
Typical Teaming and Bonding Capabilities
Network adapters connect to the network in a redundant fashion. This redundancy increases performance and
provides high availability. Two main options are available for servers to support redundant connectivity to the
network:
provides high availability. Two main options are available for servers to support redundant connectivity to the
network:
●
Routing:
An IP address is assigned to each NIC and a routing protocol is run on the server. This option is not
commonly used and is not recommended.
●
NIC teaming:
The network adapter manufacturer provides software that, together with the driver, bundles the
NICs and exposes them to the operating system as a single entity. Figure 1 shows an example in which Local
Area Connection 9 and Local Area Connection 11 have been teamed and are presented to the OS as a single
adapter, which is listed as Local Area Connection 13.
Area Connection 9 and Local Area Connection 11 have been teamed and are presented to the OS as a single
adapter, which is listed as Local Area Connection 13.
Figure 1.
Example of Teaming Configuration
Typical teaming options include the following:
●
Fault tolerance (adapter):
Only one of the teamed NICs transmits and receives; all remaining NICs are on
standby. The user can optionally define the order of preference to set the NIC that becomes primary. In Figure
2, this is option (a).
2, this is option (a).
●
Load balancing ((transmit or adaptive):
Outgoing traffic is load-balanced across all teamed NICs, while the
incoming traffic is received only on one NIC. Figure 3 illustrates this type of configuration. Adapter 9 (with a
MAC address ending in .07cc) and adapter 11 (with a MAC address ending in .07ce) are teamed, and adapter
9 is preferred for the receive direction of the traffic (which means that Adapter 9 answers Address Resolution
Protocol [ARP] requests). The load-balancing method hashes traffic based on the destination IP address. In
Figure 2, this is option (b).
MAC address ending in .07cc) and adapter 11 (with a MAC address ending in .07ce) are teamed, and adapter
9 is preferred for the receive direction of the traffic (which means that Adapter 9 answers Address Resolution
Protocol [ARP] requests). The load-balancing method hashes traffic based on the destination IP address. In
Figure 2, this is option (b).
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