How To Balance Traffic Loads Over Equal-Cost Routes - Novell NETWARE 6-DOCUMENTATION Manual

How to Balance Traffic Loads over Equal-Cost Routes

If you configure equal-cost routes on two or more interfaces, make sure the
associated media throughputs fall within—or near—the same range, as
indicated in Table 4. For example, equal-cost routes between a 10-Mbps
Ethernet link and a 16-Mbps token ring link are viable; equal-cost routes
between a 4-Mbps token ring link and a 16-Mbps token ring link are not.
WARNING:
Do not equalize the cost of routes whose throughputs differ greatly;
this can interfere with the operation of IPX applications running over the network.
For more information about load balancing and path cost, refer to
"Understanding," on page
Before you begin, make sure of the following:
NLSP is enabled on all interfaces you plan to configure.
To enable NLSP globally or on one or more interfaces, refer to
Configure NLSP" on page
The media over which you plan to configure equal-cost routes have the
same or similar throughput ranges.
For a list of throughput ranges and associated media, refer to
page 92.
To configure load balancing over equal-cost routes, complete the following
steps:
1
Load NIASCFG, then select the following parameter path:
Select Configure NIAS > Protocols and Routing > Protocols > IPX >
Expert Configuration Options
2
Select the Maximum Number of Path Splits parameter, enter a value
between 2 and 8, then press Enter .
Selecting a value of 2 or above automatically enables local load balancing
over the specified number of equal-cost routes.
3
Press Esc and save your changes.
4
Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu.
11.
74.
Chapter 1,
"How to
Table 4 on
93
Setting Up