Quad Port Adapter for NIC Teaming

[eroji]

After watching Linus' video on setting up a quad NIC file server, I am now trying to do the same thing for my file server running Server 2012. I am having a hard time with this after searching for couple days. I originally purchased a used Intel PRO/1000 PT LP adapter on Ebay which did not like the Netgear 108T switch I have. No matter what I did, it did not want to obtain a DHCP IP on any of the 4 ports as auto-negotiated speed of 1Gb. However, if I set the link speed to 100Mb duplex manually, it would work but that would just defeat the purpose of my goal of 4Gb team. I am guessing part of the problem is also this switch since it's fairly old. I have just purchased a new one (DLink DGS-1100) that is still on the way. My question is, does anyone have another NIC they would suggest that would work and is supported under Server 2012?

[wpirobotbuilder]

Did you configure LACP correctly on your switch and on your NIC? Both must support it and have it enabled.

 

Also, DHCP doesn't give you four IP addresses, but rather one address that points to all four ports (the response is handled by the NIC controller).

 

But that switch does support LACP and according to Newegg reviews, so does the NIC.

 

If you're looking for a different NIC, I recommend the I350 T4

[eroji]

I do understand LACP needs to be enabled to use the dynamic teaming. However, shouldn't the stock condition of the card allow for each port to obtain an IP normally prior to LACP configuration? It's my first time trying to set this up so I don't know what to expect.

[Strikermed]

I've been interested in setting up the same scenario with a custom built NAS. I was hoping I could find an answer to all my questions to the set up of a 4Gbs network involving 2 quad port NICs and a smart switch.

What I've concluded is that you need to enable full duplex on all devices along with enabling each device for LACP. What is dynamic teaming and where does it come into play?

Also, everywhere I've looked it says that LACP can only be used to open more lanes and not increase transfer speeds. Can anyone clear this up for me?

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

I do understand LACP needs to be enabled to use the dynamic teaming. However, shouldn't the stock condition of the card allow for each port to obtain an IP normally prior to LACP configuration? It's my first time trying to set this up so I don't know what to expect.

When you have more than 1 NIC in a pc, normally the first one gets an IP and the others dont realy seem to do much.  Notice if you give 2 ports on your NIC different static IP's but on the same subset  (255.255.255.0) windows will warn you about it. yes it works if you accept the warning but from what i remember I dont think DHCP will give your pc more than 1 address by default.  As long as you have setup your Link Aggregation correctly on both sides it should work. 

 

From the manual for your switch   "  

Each port can belong to only one LAG.

• Each LAG can have up to four ports.

• Ports in a LAG must have the same speed and be in the same VLAN group.

"

 

Manual link :  http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GS108T_UM_11Feb08.pdf

 

So it might be worth manually setting the speed to 1000Mbps and full duplex to be sure.

 

Also, everywhere I've looked it says that LACP can only be used to open more lanes and not increase transfer speeds. Can anyone clear this up for me?

 

It can be used it 2 ways.  The first being redundancy. say you setup 4 cables in Link Aggregation.  One of your technicians pulls out one of those cables by mistake.  You where able to transfer at 4Gpbs but now your down to 3. (not ideal as you just lost loads of traffic and could possibly now saturate your ports, customers would not be happy)

Yes it does allow you to do 4Gbps  but over 4 cables. you would never be able to transfer above that amount.   Link Aggregation is how big service providers would have say a 100Gbps  line they have to put 10 10G ports in Link Aggregation to provide that 100G link. 

 

There is also another technology you may have come across while looking at this. and that's Spanning Tree. basically allows you set setup 2 links but one is deactivated until the primary link goes down.  So this is for redundancy purposes, it doesn't allow you to transfer above say 1G on a cable even though you have 2, due to one being automatically disabled.

 

Wikipedia's in-depth explanation what what i just said    :   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation

[Strikermed]

Thanks for clearing that up. So say I'm trying to get the 4Gbs speed out of 4 cables (as I hope to video edit from a NAS which I will be the only one accessing, but will need it accessible through different computers). Is there something different in the set up those 2 different configurations you explained? It seems that the hardware will be the same: 2 quad port NICs and a smart smart switch that is capable of LACP.

Btw, that's some interesting insight into provider speeds set ups. Thanks!

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

yeh. so to get 4G over your network and have your NAS accessable to other pc's connected to that switch you would need to buy say a 24 port smart switch. 

 

You setup Link Aggregation on the switch for both sets of cables and connect your other devices to that switch some how as well.  you will get up to 4G on the connection between you and the NAS and everything else that connects will be at say 1G or lower depending on the slowest port.

 

You don't need to worry about spanning tree. I only through that in there as i thought you may have heard of it.  Its for redundancy only. So you only ever really find it in say a data center environment where you have multiple switches, this is how we do fail over and keep networks on line when things break. it doesn't do the same thing as Link Aggregation at all, it just provides a second fail over link if the other one breaks.

[Strikermed]

Gotcha, Thanks!

 

Last Question:

 

Is there any hardware and switches suggestions?  I've heard that intel is a good option for quad port server NIC because you can find drivers for Windows 7.  I've also been looking at and have heard that the Netgear Gs724T-300 24 port switchn is a good switch for something like this. 

 

Any thoughts suggestions?

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

I havent used a quad port nic before so I cant recomend one for you based on experiance with it. 

But this will probably help for the future:  http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-009747.htm

 

It has a list at the bottom of NIC's   while going through that list i found this one : http://ark.intel.com/products/50398/Intel-Gigabit-ET-Quad-Port-Server-Adapter

 

Notice how in the documentation it says what OS's its compatible with.  So if you find those sheets on intell before you buy the NIC you should be fine.

 

For example this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-E1G44ET-Gigabit-Server-Adapter/dp/B003R7K34G

goes with this documentation :  http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/sb/CS-033783.htm

 

 

I can how-ever recomend that exact switch.  I have the Netgear Gs724T-300   and have tested out Link Aggregation on it with  Quad and Oct Aggrigates.  It seems to deal with it quite well on load (when i Mean load I mean sending 5Gbps + at the ports ).  LAG is easy enough to setup  and it more or less works out of the box.

Allthough you will have to change the IP of the switch when you first get it.  Its defualt IP is 192.168.0.1   and so it with either conflict with your router or it wont work due to the default IP address.  so you will just have to plug a PC in to a port and set the IP first before you connect it to your network. then you can mange over your network once you have done that setep

 

If you get stuck at any point setting up the LAG I have a video on how to do it

[Strikermed]

I'll go ahead and watch it if you would like to share! 

 

Thanks for all the information.  That will help a ton in purchasing.

 

You mentioned oct aggrigation?  Is that using 2 sets quad cards to get 8gbs throughput?  so, like a cheap man's 10gbs? haha

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

hehe. 

 

hears the tutorial on how to do your link aggregation on the Netgear switch : 

 

I think if i remember correctly you can put as may ports on a Link Aggregation on that switch as you like but you are limited to the amount of separate aggregates .

 

what I had done is connected my 24 port Netgear up to my other 48 port 3com switch.  ran 8 cables between them and then i sent 8 gig of data from multiple servers over that link.

So you understand a little better as to how I was able to do that,  hears my home lab for server and networking stuffs: 

 

All though I don't think you could setup an oct Link aggregation with 2 network cards as they would be separate. But don't hold me to that because i don't relay know on that front so i can neither confirm nor deny, I would have to research it a bit first and maybe "acquire" some cards to try it out

 

Share with us when your done.  Would be cool to see how you get on.  and of course if you get stuck we are all here ready to help!

 

Enjoy!

[Strikermed]

Perfect!  Thanks!  I will let you know how my set up works out!