The PRO/100 Server adapter teaming features include fault tolerance, load balancing, and increased throughput options when running Windows NT 4.0 and 2000, NetWare 4.x and 5.x, and UnixWare.
For a complete overview of Teaming Options, see "Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel Server Adapters." This document covers teaming and load balancing options. You can view this document with the Adobe Acrobat* Viewer.
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) provides the safety of an additional backup link between the server and buffered repeater or switch. In the case of buffered repeater or switch port, cable, or adapter failure, you can maintain uninterrupted network performance through an adapter team.
Adapter Fault Tolerance is implemented with a primary adapter and one or more back up, or secondary adapters. During normal operation, the back up adapters will have transmit disabled. If the link to the primary adapter fails, the link to the secondary adapter automatically takes over.
To use Adapter Fault Tolerance, you must have at least one PRO/100 Server adapter, or one PRO/1000 adapter and one PRO/100 Server adapter installed in your server or workstation and linked to the same network.
IMPORTANT: Use the Intel PROSet utility instead of the Device Manager to add or remove a Team in Windows 2000. Otherwise, the teaming driver may not be correctly enabled or disabled. You cannot re-enable a team in Windows 2000 once it has been disabled. The server must be restarted to re-enable the team. Or if you did use the Device Manager, you can disable and re-enable member adapters under the team using the Device Manager after re-enabling the team.
Copy the appropriate lines from the Examples file (on the Intel CD) and paste them into the appropriate file. These commands assume the iANS.LAN and CE100B.LAN files are in the system directory (SYS:\SYSTEM) of your server. (Files must be copied from the Intel CD to your server's hard drive.)
New command line options allow hot expand (adding and removing adapters) with the recommit, unbind, removeteam, and removevlanid commands. Use F1 to see the included help file.
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NOTE: The iANS.LAN driver requires more resources (memory) than a traditional LAN driver. To accommodate this, the minimum and maximum packet receive buffers need to be increased. The exact numbers depend on the complexity of the team; however, the following settings (which are to be added to the STARTUP.NCF file) should be sufficient for most single team systems. |
Add these lines to the STARTUP.NCF file
SET MINIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS=500
SET MAXIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS=2000
Copy these lines into the AUTOEXEC.NCF file
;- Load the base driver for each adapter
load ce100b slot=x name=primary
load ce100b slot=y name=secondary
; Do not bind protocols to the base (ce100b) driver.
;- Load IANS to form the basis of a team
load IANS
;- Bind IANS to each physical adapter
bind IANS ce100b primary
bind IANS ce100b secondary
;- Use IANS to commit the team
load IANS commit mode=z
;- Bind the protocol to IANS instead of to the base driver
bind ipx IANS net=1
slot= the slot number your PRO/100 Server adapter is installed in, such as 1. If you don’t know the number, load the driver without it. NetWare will prompt you with available PCI device numbers.
x is the primary adapter’s slot number.
y is the secondary adapter’s slot number.
z is the teaming mode of your choice: Specify AFT for Adapter Fault Tolerance, ALB for Adaptive Load Balancing, or FEC for Fast EtherChannel.
Note that you can specify a Preferred Primary adapter, which in most cases will be your highest bandwidth adapter. See the NetWare Servers page.
To remove a team in AFT/ALB/FEC/802.3ad mode, comment out the lines you added and unload iANS.LAN by typing "UNLOAD IANS" at the console. If no other adapters are using the base driver (CE100B, CE100SNW and/or CE1000) you may also unload the base driver at the console prompt.
Configuration information for PRO/100 adapter teaming features under UnixWare may be found on the Installing the eeE DDI8 Driver for UnixWare* 7 page.
Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) is a simple and efficient way to balance the transmission load of your server among two to eight PRO/100 Server adapters. With ALB you group PRO/100 Server adapters in teams. The ALB software continuously analyzes transmit loading on each adapter and balances the rate across the adapters as needed. Adapter teams configured for ALB also provide the benefits of AFT. Received data is not load-balanced.
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NOTE: For maximum benefit, ALB should not be used under NetBEUI and some IPX* environments. For a list of specific IPX environments supported, see Teaming Options Supported by OS and Protocol. |
To use ALB, your adapters must be configured as a team in your server and be linked to the same network segment.
Copy the appropriate lines from the Examples file (on the Intel CD) and paste them into the appropriate file. These commands assume the iANS.LAN and CE100.LAN files are in the system directory (SYS:\SYSTEM) of your server. (Files must be copied from the Intel CD to your server's hard drive).
New command line options allow hot expand (adding and removing adapters) with the recommit, unbind, removeteam, and removevlanid commands. Use F1 to see the included help file.
To remove a team in AFT/ALB/FEC/802.3ad mode, comment out the lines you added and unload iANS.LAN by typing "UNLOAD IANS" at the console. If no other adapters are using the base driver (CE100B, CE100SNW and/or CE1000) you may also unload the base driver at the console prompt.
Configuration information for PRO/100 adapter teaming features under UnixWare may be found on the Installing the eeE DDI8 Driver for UnixWare* 7 page.
Fast EtherChannel (FEC) is a performance technology developed by Cisco to increase throughput between switches. Intel has implemented FEC on server adapters to increase your server's throughput. Unlike ALB, FEC can be configured to increase both transmission and reception channels between your server and switch. FEC works only with FEC-enabled Cisco switches, such as the Catalyst 5000 series. As you add adapters to your server, you can group them in teams, with a maximum of eight PRO/100 Server adapters. The FEC software continuously analyzes loading on each adapter and balances network traffic across the adapters as needed. Adapter teams configured for FEC also provide the benefits of AFT.
To use FEC, you must have two to eight PRO/100 Server adapters configured as a FEC team in your server or workstation and linked to the same FEC-enabled Cisco switch.
See software requirements for AFT in the Systems Requirements section.
Copy the appropriate lines from the Examples file (on the Intel CD) and paste them into the appropriate files. These commands assume the iANS.LAN and CE100.LAN files are in the system directory (SYS:SYSTEM) of your server. (Files must be copied from the Intel CD to your server's hard drive).
To remove a team in AFT/ALB/FEC/802.3ad mode, comment out the lines you added and unload iANS.LAN by typing "UNLOAD IANS" at the console. If no other adapters are using the base driver (CE100B, CE100SNW and/or CE1000) you may also unload the base driver at the console prompt.
Configuration information for PRO/100 adapter teaming features under UnixWare may be found on the Installing the eeE DDI8 Driver for UnixWare* 7 page.
Supported Protocols |
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| Teaming Option | Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 | NetWare | UnixWare 7.1.x |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFT | IP, NetBEUI, IPX (NCP), IPX (NetBIOS) | IP, IPX (NCP), AppleTalk* | IP, IPX |
| ALB | IP, IPX (NCP) | IP, IPX (NCP) | IP, IPX (NCP) |
| FEC | IP, NetBEUI, IPX (NCP), IPX (NetBIOS) | IP, IPX (NCP) | IP, IPX (NCP) |
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NOTE: Note that only IPX packets type NCP (NetWare Core Protocol) are load balanced. If a particular protocol is not listed above, it means that protocol's traffic is routed through the primary adapter of the team. |