LACP Trunking and Network Teaming 3

[mlgmartin]

Dear HP Gurus,

Do I need to set LACP trunking on the switch if Network Teaming was done on the server?

"It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.

 

[glaycock]

Yes.

http://ramazancan.wordpress.com/201...-and-cisco-or-procurve-switch-infrastructure/

Greg

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

Yes, and you can't use the default "trunk" config, you have to specify "LACP".

 

[mlgmartin]

Will it cause any problem in my network if teaming was already done on the server and LACP was not yet configured in the switch? Will it cause a network loop or broadcast problem? Without configuring our switch, I've noticed from the 3 teamed NICs' speed became triple already and the host server 2008 (with 4 virtual machines) is running smoothly.

"It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

Do a "show trunk" on the switch - it may have dynamically created one. The drawback with dynamic trunks, from memory, is when you have to add VLANs, QoS and whatnot. Or maybe it was something else. I remember having trouble with them for some reason. I'm a great believer in *explicit* configs with nothing "dynamic" going on, anyway.

 

[mlgmartin]

I'm using Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 3 (BACS3) on a Windows Server 2008 R2. The network teaming wizard provided 3 option as follows:

1) Smart Load Balancing (TM) and Failover (SLB)
2) 802.3ad Link Aggregation using Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
3) FEC/GEC Generic Trunking

Please correct me if I'm wrong, if I choose option 1, there's no need to configure the switch and if I choose option 2 or 3, I need to enable LACP trunking in the switch.

I tried the "show trunk" or "show lacp" command from the switch and there's no trunk that was dynamically configured.

"It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.

 

[cajuntank]

Never used the BAC3, so going out on a little of a limb and say yes to your question. I say yes as I only use HP server equipment and the default settings for the teaming of the NICs are what it sounds like your describing with your option 1. The failover is self explanatory, but the load balancing is a little misleading. Your server will transmit over both NICs, but will only receive over one (the one it chooses as the "master"). This way requires no switch configuration; and while it does offer redundancy, it only offers one way added throughput.