Tlb Redundancy Mechanisms; Tlb Network Adapter Failure Recovery; Tlb Applications; Recommended Configurations For Tlb Environments - HP Rx2620-2 - Integrity - 0 MB RAM Manual

ports are equally used. HP recommends that the implications of this method of load balancing
be carefully considered before deployment.

TLB Redundancy Mechanisms

The basic and advanced redundancy mechanisms used by TLB are identical to NFT. Refer to the
section, "NFT Redundancy

TLB Network Adapter Failure Recovery

With TLB, the recovery mechanism provided is very similar to the NFT failover methods discussed
previously. In a two-port TLB team, the primary port receives all data frames, while the
Non-Primary port receives and transmits only heartbeat frames. With TLB, all teamed ports are
capable of transmitting data frames. In the event of a failover, the non-Primary port becomes the
Primary port and assumes the MAC address of the team. In effect, the two ports swap MAC
addresses. The new Primary port now receives and transmits all data frames. If the old Primary
port is restored, it becomes a non-Primary port for the team. It will now only receive heartbeat
frames and will be capable of transmitting data frames. If a Non-Primary teamed port fails in a
two-port team, the data frames being transmit load balanced by the failed teamed port are
transmitted by the Primary port. If a Non-Primary teamed port is restored, it remains a
Non-Primary teamed port, and the team will resume load balancing data frames on that port.
No MAC address changes are made when a Non-Primary port fails or is restored.

TLB Applications

TLB is deployed in environments that require fault tolerance and additional transmit throughput
greater than the capacity of the Primary port. However, TLB environments do not require receive
throughput greater than the capacity of the Primary port. For example, in a database server
whose primary role is that of transmitting data to clients, receive throughput requirements may
be much smaller than the transmit requirements because database requests require less bandwidth
than transmitting database content.

Recommended Configurations for TLB Environments

HP recommends the following:
• Heartbeats should be enabled (default).
• MAC addresses should not be manually set to a locally administered address (LAA) via the
Microsoft Adapter Properties User Interface. A user should not implement LAAs on
individual network ports that are members of a team; otherwise teaming may not function
correctly. Setting an LAA for the team is permitted via the NCU.
• Spanning Tree's blocking, listening, and learning stages should be disabled, or bypassed,
on all switch ports to which a teamed port is attached. These stages are not needed when a
non-switch networking device (for example, server) is attached to the switch port. HP
ProCurve switches have a feature called STP Fast Mode that is used to disable these Spanning
Tree stages on a port-by-port basis. Cisco switches have an equivalent feature called PortFast.
• Team members can be split across more than one switch in order to achieve switch
redundancy. However, all switch ports that are attached to members of the same team must
comprise a single broadcast domain (in other words, same VLAN). Additionally, if problems
exist after deploying a team across more than one switch, all team members should be
reattached to the same switch. If the problems disappear, then the cause of the problem
resides in the configuration of the switches and not in the configuration of the team. If switch
redundancy is required (team members are attached to two different switches), then HP
recommends that the switches be deployed with redundant links between them and Spanning
Tree be enabled (or other Layer 2 redundancy mechanisms) on the ports that connect the
Mechanisms", for more information.
Types of HP Integrity Network Adapter Teams 67