HP Integrity rx2800 HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming Whitepaper - Page 11

An Executive Overview of Teaming, What is HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming?

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2 An Executive Overview of Teaming What is HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming? HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming is software-based technology used by server administrators and network administrators to increase a server's network availability and performance. HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming provides network adapter, network port, network cable, switch, and communication path fault recovery technology, in addition to, transmit and receive load balancing technology. HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming is wholly developed by HP Engineering specifically for HP Integrity customers. The Goals of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming The objective of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming is to provide network fault tolerance and load balancing for HP Integrity servers. These two objectives are accomplished by "teaming" together two or more server network adapter ports. The term "team" refers to the concept of multiple server network adapters (teamed ports), from the same server, working together as a single server network adapter (commonly referred to as a virtual network adapter). Fault Tolerance: Self-Healing Network Connectivity In today's server environments, fault tolerance is provided at many levels - power supplies, fans, hard drives, processors, memory, etc. One of the most often overlooked fault-tolerant devices is the server network adapter. Many server administrators (SA) spend thousands of dollars on eliminating single points of failure in their servers. They do this because they want to make sure their servers are "highly available" to their users. Even when an SA realizes the need for network adapter hardware fault recovery, they don't always consider network cable fault recovery or even switch fault recovery. These aspects of network fault tolerance are often seen as the responsibility of the network engineer. It is not uncommon for an SA to receive a 2 a.m. pager notification because the server lost network connectivity. For the SA that didn't plan for it, it can be a frustrating experience - both for the SA and for the server's clients. Regardless of all the redundancy built into the server's other hardware components, a server with single point of failure in its network connectivity is a server outage waiting to happen. The very expensive server can be rendered useless because the server can no longer perform its function on the network. There are several considerations to keep in mind when planning for server network fault tolerance: • Network adapter failures - Network adapter failures are typically hardware related. The network adapter hardware stopped working. However, these kinds of failures can often be caused by software-related problems (for example, driver failure). Other network adapter failures can be caused by an accident (for example, SA disables wrong adapter during server reconfiguration). • Server expansion slot failures - This is defined as hardware failure of the server's expansion slot (for example, PCI, PCI-X, etc.) in which the network adapter is installed. While extremely uncommon, it can be a single point of failure. The deployment of a network adapter with two ports in a single PCI slot will provide network "port" fault tolerance but will not provide expansion slot fault tolerance. • Network cable disconnects - Network cable disconnects is one type of failure that is often out of the control of the SA. This type of failure can be caused by someone tripping over the network cable, from another SA choosing the wrong network cable to unplug from the server, or by a network engineer unplugging the wrong network cables from the switch. • Switch failures and misconfigurations - Switch failures or misconfigurations are probably the most overlooked aspects of server network fault tolerance. SAs often expect the network What is HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming? 11

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2 An Executive Overview of Teaming
What is HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming?
HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming is software-based technology used by server
administrators and network administrators to increase a server’s network availability and
performance. HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming provides network adapter, network port,
network cable, switch, and communication path fault recovery technology, in addition to, transmit
and receive load balancing technology.
HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming is wholly developed by HP Engineering specifically for
HP Integrity customers.
The Goals of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming
The objective of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming is to provide network fault tolerance
and load balancing for HP Integrity servers. These two objectives are accomplished by “teaming”
together two or more server network adapter ports. The term “team” refers to the concept of
multiple server network adapters (teamed ports), from the same server, working together as a
single server network adapter (commonly referred to as a virtual network adapter).
Fault Tolerance: Self-Healing Network Connectivity
In today’s server environments, fault tolerance is provided at many levels – power supplies,
fans, hard drives, processors, memory, etc. One of the most often overlooked fault-tolerant devices
is the server network adapter. Many server administrators (SA) spend thousands of dollars on
eliminating single points of failure in their servers. They do this because they want to make sure
their servers are “highly available” to their users. Even when an SA realizes the need for network
adapter hardware fault recovery, they don’t always consider network cable fault recovery or
even switch fault recovery. These aspects of network fault tolerance are often seen as the
responsibility of the network engineer.
It is not uncommon for an SA to receive a 2 a.m. pager notification because the server lost network
connectivity. For the SA that didn’t plan for it, it can be a frustrating experience – both for the
SA and for the server’s clients. Regardless of all the redundancy built into the server’s other
hardware components, a server with single point of failure in its network connectivity is a server
outage waiting to happen. The very expensive server can be rendered useless because the server
can no longer perform its function on the network.
There are several considerations to keep in mind when planning for server network fault tolerance:
•
Network adapter failures
– Network adapter failures are typically hardware related. The
network adapter hardware stopped working. However, these kinds of failures can often be
caused by software-related problems (for example, driver failure). Other network adapter
failures can be caused by an accident (for example, SA disables wrong adapter during server
reconfiguration).
•
Server expansion slot failures
– This is defined as hardware failure of the server’s expansion
slot (for example, PCI, PCI-X, etc.) in which the network adapter is installed. While extremely
uncommon, it can be a single point of failure. The deployment of a network adapter with
two ports in a single PCI slot will provide network “port” fault tolerance but will not provide
expansion slot fault tolerance.
•
Network cable disconnects
– Network cable disconnects is one type of failure that is often
out of the control of the SA. This type of failure can be caused by someone tripping over the
network cable, from another SA choosing the wrong network cable to unplug from the
server, or by a network engineer unplugging the wrong network cables from the switch.
•
Switch failures and misconfigurations
– Switch failures or misconfigurations are probably
the most overlooked aspects of server network fault tolerance. SAs often expect the network
What is HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming?
11