Teaming And Network Addresses; Description Of Teaming Types - Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57 Series User Manual

NetXtreme User Guide

Teaming and Network Addresses

A team of adapters function as a single virtual network interface and does not appear any different to other
network devices than a non-teamed adapter. A virtual network adapter advertises a single Layer 2 and one or
more Layer 3 addresses. When the teaming driver initializes, it selects one MAC address from one of the
physical adapters that make up the team to be the Team MAC address. This address is typically taken from the
first adapter that gets initialized by the driver. When the system hosting the team receives an ARP request, it
selects one MAC address from among the physical adapters in the team to use as the source MAC address in
the ARP Reply. In Windows operating systems, the IPCONFIG /all command shows the IP and MAC address
of the virtual adapter and not the individual physical adapters. The protocol IP address is assigned to the virtual
network interface and not to the individual physical adapters.
For switch-independent teaming modes, all physical adapters that make up a virtual adapter must use the
unique MAC address assigned to them when transmitting data. That is, the frames that are sent by each of the
physical adapters in the team must use a unique MAC address to be IEEE compliant. It is important to note that
ARP cache entries are not learned from received frames, but only from ARP requests and ARP replies.

Description of Teaming Types

• Smart Load Balancing and Failover
• Generic Trunking
• Link Aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad LACP)
• SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)
There are three methods for classifying the supported teaming types:
• One is based on whether the switch port configuration must also match the adapter teaming type.
• The second is based on the functionality of the team, whether it supports load balancing and failover or just
failover.
• The third is based on whether the Link Aggregation Control Protocol is used or not.
Table 9 shows a summary of the teaming types and their classification.
Switch-Dependent
(Switch must
support specific
Teaming Type type of team)
Smart Load
Balancing and
Failover (with two to
eight load balance
team members)
SLB (Auto-Fallback
Disable)
Link Aggregation
(802.3ad)
Broadcom ®
April 2017 • 2CS57XX-CDUM514-R
Table 9: Available Teaming Types
Link Aggregation
Control Protocol
support is required
on the switch
Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Teaming Services
Load Balancing Failover
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