3Com 3CR990-TX-97 manual Configuring Groups and VLANs for a Server NIC, Planning the Configuration

60CHAPTER 4: INSTALLING DYNAMICACCESS SOFTWARE IN WINDOWS

Verifying Successful Installation

After the DynamicAccess software is installed on the server PC, the following changes are visible in the Windows Network control panel:

■For each physical NIC installed in the client PC, a virtual NIC entry appears in the list of network adapters.

All protocols are re-bound to the virtual NIC. The bindings to the physical NIC are still intact.

■A 3Com DynamicAccess entry appears as a protocol.

■A 3Com DynamicAccess icon is installed in the Windows Control Panel.

Configuring Groups and VLANs for a Server NIC

DynamicAccess technology server features allow you to configure load balancing groups and virtual LANs (VLANs). The features are described in Advanced Server Features on page 17.

The following DynamicAccess technology server features are available for NIC groups in Windows:

■load balancing

■RSL failover

■multiple VLANs

The examples in this section illustrate typical actions you might take in the course of maintaining a DynamicAccess server configuration in Windows.

Planning the Configuration

Consider these items when planning groups and VLANs:

■Decide whether you want to use bidirectional load balancing, or transmit load balancing.

To use bidirectional load balancing, you must assign a dedicated IP address for each load balancing group. This address must be unique (not used elsewhere on the network). For details, see Specifying a Dedicated IP Address on page 66.

■Decide which NICs are to be part of each group. Each group must include at least two NICs.