Appendix D. Teaming Options; General Configuration Notes; Setting Up Adapter Fault Tolerance - IBM Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapters Installation Manual

Appendix D. Teaming Options

The Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapter provides the following options, called teaming
options , which increase throughput and fault tolerance when running with Windows
NT 4.0 or NetWare 4.1x or later:
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT)
Adapter Load Balancing (ALB)
Cisco Fast EtherChannel (FEC)
General Configuration Notes
v Windows NT versions prior to 4.0 do not support adapter teaming options.
v Adapter teaming options require Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or Service
v In Windows NT, teaming options cannot be implemented on adapters that have

Setting Up Adapter Fault Tolerance

Note: Use the procedure in this section if you are setting up AFT only. If you
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) provides the safety of an additional backup link
between the server and buffered repeater or switch. If you have a buffered repeater,
switch port, cable, or adapter failure, you can maintain uninterrupted network
performance through an adapter team.
AFT is implemented with a primary adapter and one or more backup, or secondary
adapters. During normal operation, the secondary adapters have their transmit
function disabled. If the link to the primary adapter fails, the link to the secondary
takes over automatically.
To use AFT, you must have at least two Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapters or one
Netfinity 10/100 Ethernet Adapter and one IBM Netfinity Gigabit adapter installed in
your server and linked to the same network. When teaming a Netfinity Gigabit
adapter with a Netfinity 10/100 adapter, ensure that the 10/100 adapter is in AFT
mode.
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Provides automatic redundancy for your adapter. If the primary adapter
fails, the secondary adapter takes over. Adapter Fault Tolerance supports
from 2 to 4 adapters per team.
Allows balancing the transmission data flow among two to four adapters.
ALB also includes the AFT option. ALB can be used with any 100BASE-TX
switch.
Creates a team of two or four adapters to increase transmission and
reception thoughput. FEC also includes the AFT option. FEC can only be
used with a switch that has FEC capability.
Pack 3.0 and the NDIS driver hotfix from Microsoft.
been configured for VLANs. NetWare can support teaming options and VLANs on
the same adapters.
setting ALB or FEC, use the procedures in those sections. The AFT option
runs automatically when you run ALB or FCE.
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