Advanced Network Services (ANS) Teaming, a feature of the Advanced Network Services component, lets you take advantage of multiple adapters in a system by grouping them together. ANS teaming can use features like fault tolerance and load balancing to increase throughput and reliability.
Teaming options are supported on Intel® PRO/100, Intel® Gigabit, and Intel®
10GbE adapters. Selected adapters from other manufacturers are also supported.
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Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) - provides automatic redundancy for a server's network connection. If the primary adapter fails, the secondary adapter takes over. Adapter Fault Tolerance supports two to eight adapters per team. This teaming type works with any hub or switch. All team members must be connected to the same subnet.
Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT) - provides failover between two adapters connected to separate switches. Switch Fault Tolerance supports two adapters per team. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) must be enabled on the switch when you create a SFT team. When SFT teams are created, the Activation Delay is automatically set to 60 seconds. This teaming type works with any switch or hub. All team members must be connected to the same subnet.
Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) - provides load balancing of transmit traffic and adapter fault tolerance. In Microsoft* Windows* operating systems, you can also enable or disable receive load balancing (RLB) in ALB teams (by default, RLB is enabled).
Virtual Machine Load Balancing
(VMLB) - provides transmit and receive traffic load balancing across
Virtual Machines bound to the team interface, as well as fault tolerance
in the event of switch port, cable, or adapter failure.
Static Link Aggregation (SLA)
- provides increased transmission and reception throughput in a
team of two to eight adapters. This team type replaces the following team
types from prior software releases: Fast EtherChannel*/Link
Aggregation (FEC) and Gigabit EtherChannel*/Link Aggregation (GEC). This
type also
includes adapter fault tolerance and load balancing (only routed
protocols). This teaming type requires a switch with Intel
Link Aggregation, Cisco* FEC or GEC, or IEEE 802.3ad Static Link
Aggregation capability.
All
adapters in a Link Aggregation team running in static mode must run at the
same speed and must be connected to a Static Link Aggregation capable
switch. If the speed capability of adapters in a Static Link Aggregation
team are different, the speed of the team is dependent on the lowest
common denominator.
IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation - creates one or more teams using Dynamic Link Aggregation with mixed-speed adapters. Like the Static Link Aggregation teams, Dynamic 802.3ad teams increase transmission and reception throughput and provide fault tolerance. This teaming type requires a switch that fully supports the IEEE 802.3ad standard.
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If the primary adapter fails, another adapter will take over its duties. If you are using more than two adapters, and you want a specific adapter to take over if the primary fails, you must specify a secondary adapter.
There are two types of primary and secondary adapters:
Default primary adapter: If you do not specify a preferred primary adapter, the software will choose an adapter of the highest capability (model and speed) to act as the default primary. If a failover occurs, another adapter becomes the primary. The adapter will, however, rejoin the team as a non-primary.
Preferred Primary/Secondary adapters: You can specify a preferred adapter in Intel PROSet. Under normal conditions, the Primary adapter handles all non-TCP/IP traffic. The Secondary adapter will receive fallback traffic if the primary fails. If the Preferred Primary adapter fails, but is later restored to an active status, control is automatically switched back to the Preferred Primary adapter.
To specify a preferred primary or secondary adapter
From Device Manager, open the properties of a team.
Click the Settings tab.
Click the Modify Team button.
Select the adapter you want to be the primary adapter and click the Set Primary button.
The adapter's preferred setting appears in the Priority column.
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) provides the safety of an additional backup link between the server and switch. In the case of switch port, cable, or adapter failure, network connectivity is maintained.
Adapter Fault Tolerance is implemented with a primary adapter and one or more backup, or secondary adapters. During normal operation, the backup adapters are in standby. If the link to the primary adapter fails, the link to the secondary adapter automatically takes over. For more information, see Primary and Secondary Adapters.
To use Adapter Fault Tolerance all adapters must be connected to the same subnet.
Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT) teaming allows you to connect each of two teamed adapters to a separate switch.
Switch Fault Tolerance can detect failures when they occur:
on either teamed adapter
on either cable connecting the teamed adapter to its switch
on switch ports connected to the adapters, if link is lost
In SFT teams, one adapter is the primary adapter and one adapter is the secondary adapter. During normal operation, the secondary adapter is in standby. In standby, the adapter is inactive and waiting for failover to occur. It does not transmit or receive other network traffic. If the primary adapter loses connectivity, the secondary adapter automatically takes over.
In SFT teams, each adapter in the team can operate at a different speed than the other.
Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) uses software to balance routable traffic among a team of two to eight adapters or LOMs (the team must include at least one server adapter) connected to the same subnet. The software analyzes the send and transmit loading on each adapter and balances the rate across the adapters based on destination address. Adapter teams configured for ALB also provide the benefits of fault tolerance.
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Virtual Machine Load Balancing (VMLB) provides transmit and receive
traffic load balancing across Virtual Machines bound to the team interface, as
well as fault tolerance in the event of switch port, cable, or adapter failure.
The driver analyzes the transmit and receive load on each member adapter and
balances the traffic across member adapters. In a VMLB team, each Virtual
Machine is associated with one team member for its TX and RX traffic.
If only one virtual NIC is bound to the team, or if Hyper-V is removed, then the VMLB team will act like an AFT team.
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Static Link Aggregation (SLA) is a performance technology developed by Cisco to increase throughput between switches. This team type works with:
Cisco EtherChannel-capable switches with channeling mode set to 'ON'
Intel switches capable of Link Aggregation
Other switches capable of static 802.3ad
The transmission speed will never exceed the adapter base speed to any single address (per specification). Teams can contain two to eight adapters, but must match the capability of the switch. Adapter teams configured for Static Link Aggregation also provide the benefits of fault tolerance and load balancing.
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802.3ad is an adopted IEEE standard. Teams can contain two to eight adapters, and you can have a maximum of two IEEE 802.3ad dynamic teams per server. You must use 802.3ad switches (in dynamic mode, aggregation can go across switches). Adapter teams configured for IEEE 802.3ad also provide the benefits of fault tolerance and load balancing. Under 802.3ad, all protocols can be load balanced.
Dynamic mode supports multiple aggregators. Aggregators are formed by port speed connected to a switch. For example, a team can contain adapters running at 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps, but two aggregators will be formed, one for each speed. Also, if a team contains 1 Gbps ports connected to one switch, and a combination of 1Gbps and 10Gbps ports connected to a second switch, three aggregators would be formed. One containing all the ports connected to the first switch, one containing the 1Gbps ports connected to the second switch, and the third containing the 10Gbps ports connected to the second switch.
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Verify that the switch fully supports the IEEE 802.3ad standard.
Check your switch documentation for port dependencies. Some switches require pairing to start on a primary port.
Check your speed and duplex settings to ensure the adapter and switch are
running at full duplex, either forced or set to auto-negotiate. Both the adapter
and the switch must have the same speed and duplex configuration. The full
duplex requirement is part of the IEEE 802.3ad specification: http://standards.ieee.org/.
If needed, change your speed or duplex setting before you
link the adapter to the switch. Although you can change speed and duplex
settings after the team is created, Intel recommends you disconnect the
cables until settings are in effect. In some cases, switches or servers might
not appropriately recognize modified speed or duplex settings if settings are
changed when there is an active link to the network.
If you are configuring a VLAN, check your switch documentation for VLAN compatibility notes. Not all switches support simultaneous dynamic 802.3ad teams and VLANs. If you choose to set up VLANs, configure teaming and VLAN settings on the adapter before you link the adapter to the switch. Setting up VLANs after the switch has created an active aggregator affects VLAN functionality.
MVT allows teaming with a combination of Intel and non-Intel adapters. This feature is currently available under Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2).
If you are using a Windows-based computer, adapters that appear in the Intel PROSet teaming wizard can be included in a team.
In order to activate MVT, you must have at least one Intel adapter or integrated connection in the team, which must be designated as the primary adapter.
A multi-vendor team can be created for any team type.
All members in a MVT must operate on a common feature set (lowest common denominator).
For MVT teams, manually verify that the frame setting for the non-Intel adapter is the same as the frame settings for the Intel adapters.
Before you can set up ANS teaming in Microsoft Windows, you must install Intel® PROSet software. For more information, select Intel PROSet in the Table of Contents (left pane) of this window.
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Last modified on 10/12/09 8:51p Revision 39