NIC teaming on DL360/4000m switch

I've been going back and forth for over a month now trying to
successfully get NIC teaming set up on my HP Proliant DL360 G3 server
with dual NC7781 gigabit NICs. I've updated all the firmware and
drivers for the NICs, used the most recent 7.86 Network Configuration
Utility to team them, assign a static IP, but once teamed, causes
frequent disconnects (several times per day) and some devices on my
network are not ping-able once teamed. If I dissolve the team I can
once again ping these devices and the disconnects stop. There are no
event log errors. I'm using this on a terminal server with 15-20 users
and would like to get more bandwidth. We use a HP Procurve 4000m
J4121A switch with only 10/100 blades. I don't have any gigabit blades
to utilize the NICs fully.

I've contacted HP several times, and was told I needed to configure
port trunking on the switch to make this happen. I did that, using the
default Trunk type option as advised, but this did not resolve the
issue. I called back HP, and they told me I was advised incorrectly,
and that if I wanted more bandwidth, I needed to configure for FEC on
the switch and that I needed to configure the NICs for FEC as well. I
plan on upgrading the firmware on the switch from C.07.23 to the
current C.09.22, but don't think that's the answer.

So, what configurations/updates do I need to make to configure my NICs
for FEC, and perhaps more importantly, is this what I really need to do
to get more bandwidth from my server?

Thanks-
Brian

On 11 May 2005 11:35:04 -0700, wrote:

>I've been going back and forth for over a month now trying to
>successfully get NIC teaming set up on my HP Proliant DL360 G3 server
>with dual NC7781 gigabit NICs. I've updated all the firmware and
>drivers for the NICs, used the most recent 7.86 Network Configuration
>Utility to team them, assign a static IP, but once teamed, causes
>frequent disconnects (several times per day) and some devices on my
>network are not ping-able once teamed. If I dissolve the team I can
>once again ping these devices and the disconnects stop. There are no
>event log errors. I'm using this on a terminal server with 15-20 users
>and would like to get more bandwidth. We use a HP Procurve 4000m
>J4121A switch with only 10/100 blades. I don't have any gigabit blades
>to utilize the NICs fully.
>
>I've contacted HP several times, and was told I needed to configure
>port trunking on the switch to make this happen. I did that, using the
>default Trunk type option as advised, but this did not resolve the
>issue. I called back HP, and they told me I was advised incorrectly,
>and that if I wanted more bandwidth, I needed to configure for FEC on
>the switch and that I needed to configure the NICs for FEC as well. I
>plan on upgrading the firmware on the switch from C.07.23 to the
>current C.09.22, but don't think that's the answer.
>
>So, what configurations/updates do I need to make to configure my NICs
>for FEC, and perhaps more importantly, is this what I really need to do
>to get more bandwidth from my server?
>
>Thanks-
>Brian
>

What are your speed and duplex settings on the NIC's? You might have
to disable autodetect, and force them to 100MBs/full duplex.

Can you monitor network activity from the switch? Does the switch report
any errors or problems when these disconnects occur?


Aidan Grey

The NICs are running 100mbps at full duplex. We just first assigned an
IP address to the switch, and I have since disabled the teaming on the
nics, so I have no history of errors or problems when the disconnects
occur. I suppose I could re-team the NIC's then monitor what happens,
although I'm not crazy about forcing a problem just to see the result.
I guess that's what a person has to do sometimes though.

I upgraded the firmware on the switch last night, so that's ready to
go, and I'm trying to get in touch with another person who has the same
server/switch setup to see how they've done it.

Best-
Brian