Switching Hub; Supported Features By Team Type - Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters User Manual

Router
The various teaming modes described in this document place certain restrictions on the networking equipment used to
connect clients to teamed systems. Each type of network interconnect technology has an effect on teaming as described in the
following sections.
Repeater Hub
A Repeater Hub allows a network administrator to extend an Ethernet network beyond the limits of an individual segment.
The repeater regenerates the input signal received on one port onto all other connected ports, forming a single collision
domain. This means that when a station attached to a repeater sends an Ethernet frame to another station, every station
within the same collision domain will also receive that message. If two stations begin transmitting at the same time, a
collision occurs, and each transmitting station must retransmit its data after waiting a random amount of time.
The use of a repeater requires that each station participating within the collision domain operate in half-duplex mode.
Although half-duplex mode is supported for Gigabit Ethernet adapters in the IEEE 802.3 specification, half-duplex mode is not
supported by the majority of Gigabit Ethernet adapter manufacturers. Therefore, half-duplex mode is not considered here.
Teaming across hubs is supported for troubleshooting purposes (such as connecting a network analyzer) for SLB teams only.

Switching Hub

Unlike a repeater hub, a switching hub (or more simply a switch) allows an Ethernet network to be broken into multiple
collision domains. The switch is responsible for forwarding Ethernet packets between hosts based solely on Ethernet MAC
addresses. A physical network adapter that is attached to a switch may operate in half-duplex or full-duplex mode.
To support Generic Trunking and 802.3ad Link Aggregation, a switch must specifically support such functionality. If the switch
does not support these protocols, it may still be used for Smart Load Balancing.
Router
A router is designed to route network traffic based on Layer 3 or higher protocols, although it often also works as a Layer 2
device with switching capabilities. The teaming of ports connected directly to a router is not supported.
Supported Teaming by Processor
All team types are supported by the IA-32, IA-64, and EM64T processors.
Configuring Teaming by Operating System
Table 4 lists the tools used to configure teaming in the supported operating system environments.
Table 4. Configuration Tools
Operating System Configuration Tool
Windows Server 2003
BACS 3 utility
Windows Server 2008
NetWare Autoexec.ncf and Basp.lan
Linux Bonding
The Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 3 (BACS 3) utility is designed to run in one of the following 32-bit and 64-bit Windows
operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. BACS 3 is used to configure load balancing
and fault tolerance teaming, and VLANs. In addition, it displays the MAC address, driver version, and status information about
each network adapter. BACS 3 also includes a number of diagnostics tools such as hardware diagnostics, cable testing, and a
network topology test.
When an adapter configuration is saved in NetWare, the NetWare install program adds load and bind statements to the
Autoexec.ncf file. By accessing this file, you can verify the parameters configured for each adapter, add or delete parameters,
or modify parameters.

Supported Features by Team Type

Table 5 provides a feature comparison across the team types supported by Dell. Use this table to determine the best type of