Allied Telesis AT2972SX/2, AT-2916SX, AT-2972SX manual Basp Driver for Linux

Chapter 4: Installing BACS on a Linux System

BASP Driver for Linux

On newer Distributions and Kernels, it may be necessary to remove the

BASP Driver for Linux

BASP is a kernel module designed for 2.4.x kernels that provides load- balancing, fault-tolerance, and VLAN features. These features are provided by creating teams that consist of multiple NIC interfaces. A team can consist of 1 to 8 NIC interfaces and each interface can be designated as primary or hot-standby (SLB team only). All primary NIC interfaces in a team participate in Load-balancing operations by sending and receiving a portion of the total traffic. Hot-standby interfaces take over in the event that all primary interfaces have lost their links. In addition, VLANs can be added to a team to allow multiple VLANs with different VLAN IDs. A virtual device is created for each VLAN added.

There are three BASP modes:

ˆSLB mode. This mode works with all Ethernet switches without configuring the switch ports to any special trunking mode. BASP supports Smart Load Balance (SLB™), Generic Trunking and IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. In SLB and 802.3ad modes, all NICE drivers must support Broadcom NIC Extension (NICE).

ˆGeneric trunking mode. This mode does not require NICE and can work with any NIC; however, it requires the Ethernet switch to support the technology and be properly configured. This mode is protocol- independent and all traffic should be load-balanced and fault-tolerant.

ˆ802.3ad mode. This mode requires NICE drivers and Ethernet switches supporting IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation. This mode is protocol-independent and all traffic is load-balanced and fault-tolerant. All the physical interfaces in the 802.3ad teams are defaulted to be LACP active. A 802.3ad team requires that all of the member NICs support NICE. All of the member NICs, once in the 802.3ad team, will be set with the same MAC address.

BASP also provides remote management through the SNMP protocol. This package is installed separately (see “BASP SNMP Agent for Linux” on page 82).

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