Okay, I'm not sure if this question belongs here, so let me know if there's a better place to ask. Here goes:
I've got a trio of Win2k3 servers here in the office, along with a handful (~15) of workstations. Our T-1 connection to the office has been a little flaky recently, so we're going to get a DSL connection, to be used as a backup to the T-1, for the times when it's down.
So, each of the servers (and the ISA server for the WSs) will have 3 NICs, as follows:
NIC 1: Local subnet (i.e. 192.168.3.x)
NIC 2: Public IP from T-1 router
NIC 3: Public IP from DSL router
Now, what I want is automatic failover: Use the T-1 for outbound connections all the time, unless it goes down, at which point it should switch to the DSL connections, and switch back again when the T-1 comes back online.
Now, I know the theory of setting the metrics on each NIC appropriately so it will use the T-1 NIC by default, and will switch to the DSL NIC if the T-1 NIC goes down. The problem is that in this failure mode, the T-1 NIC link is still "up". That is, it still has physical link with the router (next hop), but the second hop is down...
Is there a way to do this?
I've tested this on one of the servers already, and it works perfectly if I unplug the T-1 NIC, or pull the power on the T-1 router, but if I just pull the T-1 line out of the T-1 router (killing the next hop, obviously), the server just keeps dumping packets into the abyss...
Any and all suggestions welcome.
Regards,
Jon Heese
I've got a trio of Win2k3 servers here in the office, along with a handful (~15) of workstations. Our T-1 connection to the office has been a little flaky recently, so we're going to get a DSL connection, to be used as a backup to the T-1, for the times when it's down.
So, each of the servers (and the ISA server for the WSs) will have 3 NICs, as follows:
NIC 1: Local subnet (i.e. 192.168.3.x)
NIC 2: Public IP from T-1 router
NIC 3: Public IP from DSL router
Now, what I want is automatic failover: Use the T-1 for outbound connections all the time, unless it goes down, at which point it should switch to the DSL connections, and switch back again when the T-1 comes back online.
Now, I know the theory of setting the metrics on each NIC appropriately so it will use the T-1 NIC by default, and will switch to the DSL NIC if the T-1 NIC goes down. The problem is that in this failure mode, the T-1 NIC link is still "up". That is, it still has physical link with the router (next hop), but the second hop is down...
Is there a way to do this?
I've tested this on one of the servers already, and it works perfectly if I unplug the T-1 NIC, or pull the power on the T-1 router, but if I just pull the T-1 line out of the T-1 router (killing the next hop, obviously), the server just keeps dumping packets into the abyss...
Any and all suggestions welcome.
Regards,
Jon Heese