Back to Contents Page

Configuring Teaming: Broadcom NetXtreme II™ Network Adapter User Guide

Broadcom Advanced Server Program Overview

Load Balancing and Fault Tolerance

Broadcom Advanced Server Program Overview

Broadcom Advanced Server Program (BASP) is the Broadcom teaming software for the Windows family of operating systems. BASP settings are configured by Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS) utility.

BASP provides support for TOE teaming only for NetXtreme II adapters.BASP supports four types of teams for Layer 2 teaming:

BASP supports two types of teams for TOE teaming:

For more information on network adapter teaming concepts, see Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Teaming Services.

Load Balancing and Fault Tolerance

Teaming provides traffic load balancing and fault tolerance (redundant adapter operation in the event that a network connection fails). When multiple Gigabit Ethernet network adapters are installed in the same system, they can be grouped into teams, creating a virtual adapter.

A team can consist of two to eight network interfaces, and each interface can be designated as a primary interface or a standby interface (standby interfaces can be used only in a Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover type of team, and only one standby interface can be designated per SLB team). If traffic is not identified on any of the adapter team member connections due to failure of the adapter, cable, switch port, or switch (where the teamed adapters are attached to separate switches), the load distribution is reevaluated and reassigned among the remaining team members. In the event that all of the primary adapters are down, the hot standby adapter becomes active. Existing sessions are maintained and there is no impact on the user.

NOTE: Although a team can be created with one adapter, it is not recommended since this defeats the purpose of teaming. A team consisting of one adapter is automatically created when setting up VLANs on a single adapter, and this should be the only time when creating a team with one adapter.

Types of Teams

The available types of teams for the Windows family of operating systems are:

Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover

Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover is the Broadcom implementation of load balancing based on IP flow. This feature supports balancing IP traffic across multiple adapters (team members) in a bidirectional manner. In this type of team, all adapters in the team have separate MAC addresses. This type of team provides automatic fault detection and dynamic failover to other team member or to a hot standby member. This is done independently of Layer 3 protocol (IP, IPX, NetBEUI); rather, it works with existing Layer 2 and 3 switches. No switch configuration (such as trunk, link aggregation) is necessary for this type of team to work.

NOTES:

Link Aggregation (802.3ad)

This mode supports link aggregation and conforms to the IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) specification. Configuration software allows you to dynamically configure which adapters you want to participate in a given team. If the link partner is not correctly configured for 802.3ad link configuration, errors are detected and noted. With this mode, all adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. The outbound load-balancing scheme is determined by our BASP driver. The team link partner determines the load-balancing scheme for inbound packets. In this mode, at least one of the link partners must be in active mode.

NOTE: Link Aggregation team type is not supported for TOE teaming.

Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static

The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static type of team is very similar to the Link Aggregation (802.3ad) type of team in that all adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static) type of team, however, does not provide LACP or marker protocol support. This type of team supports a variety of environments in which the adapter link partners are statically configured to support a proprietary trunking mechanism. For instance, this type of team could be used to support Lucent's OpenTrunk or Cisco's Fast EtherChannel (FEC). Basically, this type of team is a light version of the Link Aggregation (802.3ad) type of team. This approach is much simpler, in that there is not a formalized link aggregation control protocol (LACP). As with the other types of teams, the creation of teams and the allocation of physical adapters to various teams is done statically through user configuration software.

The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC/802.3ad-Draft Static) type of team supports load balancing and failover for both outbound and inbound traffic.

NOTE: Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC/802.3ad-Draft Static) team type is not supported for TOE teaming.

SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)

The SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) type of team is identical to the Smart Load Balancing and Failover type of team, with the following exception—when the standby member is active, if a primary member comes back on line, the team continues using the standby member, rather than switching back to the primary member.

All primary interfaces in a team participate in load-balancing operations by sending and receiving a portion of the total traffic. Standby interfaces take over in the event that all primary interfaces have lost their links.

Failover teaming provides redundant adapter operation (fault tolerance) in the event that a network connection fails. If the primary adapter in a team is disconnected because of failure of the adapter, cable, or switch port, the secondary team member becomes active, redirecting both inbound and outbound traffic originally assigned to the primary adapter. Sessions will be maintained, causing no impact to the user.

Limitations of Smart Load Balancing and Failover/SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) Types of Teams

Smart Load Balancing™ (SLB) is a protocol-specific scheme. The level of support for IP, IPX, and NetBEUI protocols is listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Smart Load Balancing
Operating System
Failover/Fallback — All Broadcom
Failover/Fallback — Multivendor
Protocol
IP
IPv6
IPX
NetBEUI
IP
IPv6
IPX
NetBEUI
Windows Server 2008
Y
Y
Y
N/S
Y
Y
N
N/S
Windows Server 2008 R2
Y
Y
Y
N/S
Y
Y
N
N/S
Operating System
Load Balance — All Broadcom
Load Balance — Multivendor
Protocol
IP
IPv6
IPX
NetBEUI
IP
IPv6
IPX
NetBEUI
Windows Server 2008
Y
Y
Y
N/S
Y
Y
N
N/S
Windows Server 2008 R2
Y
Y
Y
N/S
Y
Y
N
N/S

Legend
Y = yes
 
N = no
 
N/S = not supported

The Smart Load Balancing type of team works with all Ethernet switches without having to configure the switch ports to any special trunking mode. Only IP traffic is load-balanced in both inbound and outbound directions. IPX traffic is load-balanced in the outbound direction only. Other protocol packets are sent and received through one primary interface only. Failover for non-IP traffic is supported only for Broadcom network adapters. The Generic Trunking type of team requires the Ethernet switch to support some form of port trunking mode (for example, Cisco's Gigabit EtherChannel or other switch vendor's Link Aggregation mode). The Generic Trunking type of team is protocol-independent, and all traffic should be load-balanced and fault-tolerant.

NOTE: If you do not enable LiveLink™ when configuring SLB teams, disabling Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) or enabling Port Fast at the switch is recommended. This minimizes the downtime due to the spanning tree loop determination when failing over. LiveLink mitigates such issues.

Teaming and Large Send Offload/Checksum Offload Support

Large Send Offload (LSO) and Checksum Offload are enabled for a team only when all of the members support and are configured for the feature.


Back to Contents Page