3Com 3CR990-TX-95, 3CR990-TX-97, 3CR990SVR97 manual Configuring Groups and VLANs for a Server NIC

Configuring Groups and VLANs for a Server NIC 61

■Decide whether you want to use a foreign (non-3Com) NIC in one of the groups.

One foreign NIC (one that is not a 3Com EtherLink Server NIC) is allowed in one group per server.

■Decide which NIC is to be the primary NIC in each group. If a foreign NIC is used, it must be designated the primary NIC.

■Disable load balancing if you have set failover for a group of NICs operating at different speeds. DynamicAccess supports failover for a group of NICs operating at different speeds (for example, with one NIC operating at 10 Mbps, another operating at

100 Mbps, and another at 1,000 Mbps). However, DynamicAccess supports load balancing only for a group of NICs operating at the same speed (with all NICs operating at 10 Mbps, or all operating at

100 Mbps, or all at 1000 Mbps). For example, if you specify failover from a 3Com Gigabit EtherLink Server 1000 PCI NIC to a 3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI NIC, you must disable load balancing for that group to achieve the best performance.

■For the best failover performance, turn the spanning tree feature off at switches that are connected directly to the server. If the spanning tree feature is turned on, a failover may be delayed up to 30 seconds while the switch processes the spanning tree algorithm.

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Plan the cable changes required to connect each primary NIC and all secondary NICs to the same network segment.

Observe the recommended support limit of four groups per server.

The following guidelines apply to groups under Windows 2000:

802.1p Support Property—The value of the Windows 2000 802.1p support property must be the same for all NICs in a group. For example, if this property is enabled for the primary NIC, it must also be enabled for all other NICs in the group.

Microsoft Task Offload Support—It is possible to form a group of NICs that have different levels of support for Microsoft Task Offload features (TCP