HP Integrity rx2800 HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming Whitepaper - Page 84

HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming and Advanced Networking Features

When adapter ports are members of a team, some advanced features are no longer configurable

on the port’s Advanced Settings tab. These advanced features are either promoted to the team’s

Advanced Settings tab because the features are compatible and supported by all team members,

or not promoted because one or more ports do not support the features. There are also special

cases where a feature is supported by all team members but the implementation is not compatible

between the team members because they use different miniport drivers. In this case, it is not

promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings tab.

Checksum Offloading

Checksum Offloading, Transmit TCP Checksum Offloading, Transmit IP Checksum Offloading,

and Receive IP Checksum Offloading. HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming supports the

offloading advanced feature when it is supported by all the teamed ports in the same team. If

one or more teamed ports in the same team have the feature enabled and the feature is supported

by all teamed ports in the same team, the feature is promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings

tab as ENABLED and the teaming driver automatically enables this feature on all ports. If all

teamed ports in the same team have the feature disabled and the feature is supported by all

teamed ports in the same team, the feature is promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings tab as

DISABLED.

Although some adapters’ implementation of checksum offloading is not 100% compatible with

other adapters, the team handles the incompatibilities internally and the features are available.

802.1p QoS Tagging

HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming supports the advanced feature 802.1p QoS, when

supported by all teamed ports in the same team. This feature is used to mark frames with a

priority level for transmission across an 802.1p QOS-aware network. If all teamed ports in the

same team have the feature enabled, the feature is promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings

tab as ENABLED. If one or more teamed ports in the same team have the feature disabled, and

the feature is supported by all teamed ports in the same team, the feature is promoted to the

team’s Advanced Settings tab as DISABLED. If any one team member does not support 802.1p

QOS, then the feature will not be promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings tab. Most HP NC

Series network adapters support this advanced feature.

Large Send Offload (LSO)

HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming supports the advanced feature Large Send Offload

(LSO) (sometimes referred to as TCP Segmentation Offload) when it is supported by all the

teamed ports in the same team. This feature allows teamed ports in the same team to offload

large TCP packets for segmentation in order to improve performance. If one or more teamed

ports in the team have the feature enabled and the feature is supported by all teamed ports in

the same team, the feature is promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings tab as ENABLED and

the teaming driver automatically enables this feature on all adapters. If all teamed ports in the

same team have the feature disabled and the feature is supported by all teamed ports in the same

team, the feature is promoted to the team’s Advanced Settings tab as DISABLED.

Although some adapters’ implementation of LSO is not 100% compatible with other adapters,

the team handles the incompatibilities internally and the features are available. Refer to

http://

www

.microsoft.com/whdc/device/netw

ork/taskoffload.mspx

for more information.

Maximum Frame Size (Jumbo Frames)

HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming supports the advanced feature Maximum Frame Size

(Jumbo Frames) when supported by all teamed ports in the same team. This feature allows

teamed ports to increase maximum frame size for TCP/IP packets transmitted and received in

order to improve performance. If all teamed ports in the same team support jumbo frames, the

84

The Mechanics of Teaming for the Advanced User

Section	Page
Network Adapter Teaming White Paper	1
Table of Contents	3
1 Introduction	9
Abstract	9
How to Read This Document	9
Section Layout	9
2 An Executive Overview of Teaming	11
What is HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming?	11
The Goals of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming	11
Fault Tolerance: Self-Healing Network Connectivity	11
Load Balancing: RAID 5 for Server Network Adapters	12
Why HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming?	13
3 Teaming Fundamentals for the First-Time User	15
A Technical Overview of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming	15
Fault Tolerance: Dual Homing or Network Adapter Teaming?	15
Load Balancing: Server-Based Routing Protocol or NIC Teaming?	17
Overview of Team Types	17
Network Fault Tolerance Only (NFT)	18
Network Fault Tolerance Only with Preference Order	18
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB)	19
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order	19
Switch-assisted Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (SLB)	19
802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance	19
Switch-assisted Dual Channel Load Balancing	19
802.3ad Dynamic Dual Channel Load Balancing	20
Automatic	20
How to Choose the Best Team Type	20
Basic Teaming Versus Advanced Teaming	22
Basic Deployment Steps for HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming	23
Download	23
Install	23
Launch	23
Overview of the HP Network Configuration Utility	23
NCU Main Page	24
Primary Actions from the NCU Main Page	24
Team Properties Page	24
Team Properties Page Tabs	25
Adapter Properties Page	25
Adapter Properties Page Tabs	25
Getting Started	26
Example Deployment of Basic Teaming	26
Example Deployment of Advanced Teaming	26
4 The Mechanics of Teaming for the Advanced User	29
Section Objectives and Prerequisites	29
Architecture of HP Integrity Networking Adapter Teaming	29
The “Networking Layers” of an Operating System	29
Teaming Software Components	30
Network Adapter Miniport Driver	30
Teaming Intermediate Driver	30
HP Network Configuration Utility	30
HP Teaming and Layer 2 Versus Layer 3 Addresses	30
Types of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teams	31
Network Fault Tolerance Only (NFT)	31
Network Addressing and Communication with NFT	32
Scenario 4–A: A Device Pings an NFT Team on the Same Layer 2 Network	32
NFT Redundancy Mechanisms	34
Basic Redundancy Mechanisms	34
Advanced Redundancy Mechanisms	37
Active Path	37
General Description of Active Path Operation	38
Active Path Configuration	45
Fast Path	47
General Description of Fast Path Operation	51
Fast Path Configuration	52
Redundancy Mechanism Priority	54
Redundancy Mechanism Comparison Chart	54
Failover Events	55
NFT Network Adapter Failure Recovery	56
NFT Applications	56
Recommended Configurations for NFT Environments	57
Network Fault Tolerance Only with Preference Order	57
NFT with Preference Order Applications	57
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB)	57
Network Addressing and Communication with TLB	58
Scenario 4–B: A Device Pings a TLB Team on the Same Layer 2 Network	58
Transmit Load Balancing Methods (Algorithms)	60
TLB Automatic Method	61
TLB TCP Connection Method	62
TLB Destination IP Address Method	62
Scenario 4-C: A TLB Team Using IP Address-Based Load Balancing	63
TLB Destination MAC Address Method	64
Scenario 4-D: A TLB Team Using Destination MAC Address Load-Balancing Method	65
TLB Round Robin Method for Outbound Load Balancing	66
TLB Redundancy Mechanisms	67
TLB Network Adapter Failure Recovery	67
TLB Applications	67
Recommended Configurations for TLB Environments	67
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order	68
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order Applications	68
Switch-Assisted Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (SLB)	68
Network Addressing and Communication with SLB	69
SLB Outbound Load-Balancing Algorithms	69
SLB Inbound Load-Balancing Algorithm	69
Cisco EtherChannel	70
Switch Vendor Port Trunking Technology Supported by SLB	71
SLB Redundancy Mechanisms	72
SLB Network Adapter Failure Recovery	72
SLB Applications	72
Recommended Configurations for SLB Environments	72
802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance	73
Switch-assisted Dual Channel Load Balancing	73
Dual Channel Configuration	76
Dual Channel Transmit Balancing Algorithm	77
Dual Channel Receive Load-Balancing Algorithm	77
Receive Load Balancing on a Per-Port Trunk Basis	77
Receive Load Balancing on Multiple Trunks	77
Dual Channel Redundancy Mechanisms	78
Basic Redundancy Mechanisms	78
Advanced Redundancy Mechanisms	78
Dual Channel Network Adapter Failure Recovery	78
Dual Channel Applications	78
Recommended Configurations for Dual Channel Environments	78
802.3ad Dynamic Dual Channel Load Balancing	79
802.3ad Dynamic Dual Channel Configuration	79
Automatic	79
Team Types and Redundancy Mechanisms Interoperation	79
Team Type and Redundancy Mechanisms Compatibility Chart	79
Mechanism Priority	80
Team Status and Icons	81
Network Adapter Teamed Status	81
Team State	83
Team Icons	83
HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming and Advanced Networking Features	84
Checksum Offloading	84
802.1p QoS Tagging	84
Large Send Offload (LSO)	84
Maximum Frame Size (Jumbo Frames)	84
802.1Q Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN)	85
4–7 HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming Configuration and Deployment with Integrity Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP)	86
5 Teaming Feature Matrix	87
A – Overview of Network Addressing and Communication	89
Layer 2 Versus Layer 3	89
Address – Unicast Versus Broadcast Versus Multicast	89
Example Scenarios of Network Addressing and Communication	89
Scenario A-1: One Device Pings Another on the Same Layer 2 Network	90
Scenario A-2: One Device Pings Another on a Different Layer 2 Network	91
B – Frequently Asked Questions	95
C – Overview of Utilities Included with HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming	99

HP Integrity rx2800 HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming Whitepaper - Page 84

HP Integrity Network Adapter Teaming and Advanced Networking Features, Checksum Offloading

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