Team Types; Standby Team Member And Auto-Fallback Disable Mode; Using The Broadcom Teaming Wizard - Dell Broadcom NetXtreme Family of Adapters User Manual

Team Types

You can create four types of load balance teams:
Smart Load Balance and Failover
Link Aggregation (802.3ad) (TOE is not applicable)
Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static (TOE is not applicable)
SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) – The Auto-Fallback Disable feature is configured for Smart Load Balance and Failover type teams in the Teaming
Wizard.
NOTE: NetXtreme II network adapters with iSCSI enabled is supported only in an SLB team type.
Smart Load Balance and Failover
In this type of team, a standby member handles the traffic if all of the load balance members fail (a failover event). All load balance members have to fail
before the standby member takes over. When one or more of the load balance members is restored (fallback), the restored team member(s) resumes the
handling of the traffic. The LiveLink feature is supported for this type of team.
Link Aggregation (802.3ad)
In this type of team, you can dynamically configure the network adapters that have been selected to participate in a given team. If the link partner is not
correctly configured for IEEE 802.3ad link configuration, errors are detected and noted. All adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the
same MAC address. The outbound load balancing scheme is determined by the BASP driver. The link partner of the team determines the load balancing
scheme for inbound packets. In this mode, at least one of the link partners must be in active mode.
NOTE: TOE is not applicable for Link Aggregation team type. NetXtreme II network adapters with iSCSI enabled is not supported for Link Aggregation
team type.
Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static
This type of team is very similar to the link aggregation type, in that all adapters in the team must be configured to receive packets for the same MAC
address. This mode does not provide link aggregation control protocol (LACP) or marker protocol support. This mode supports a variety of environments
where the link partners are statically configured to support a proprietary trunking mechanism. Trunking supports load balancing and failover for both
outbound and inbound traffic.
NOTE: TOE is not applicable for Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static team type. NetXtreme II network adapters with iSCSI enabled is not
supported for Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static team type.
SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)
This team is identical to Smart Load Balance and Failover, with the following exception: when the standby member is active, if a primary member comes
back online, the team continues using the standby member rather than switching back to the primary member. This type of team is supported only for
situations in which the network cable is disconnected and reconnected to the network adapter. It is not supported for situations in which the adapter is
removed/installed through Device Manager or Hot-Plug PCI. If any primary adapter assigned to a team is disabled, the team functions as a Smart Load
Balancing and Failover type of team in which auto-fallback occurs. The LiveLink feature is supported for this type of team.

Standby Team Member and Auto-Fallback Disable Mode

You can designate one team member in an SLB type of team to be the standby member. The standby member does not actively send and receive normal
network traffic while other adapters on the team are active. If all of the active adapters on the team fail or are disconnected, the standby member takes
over the handling of the network activities.
In Auto-Fallback Disable mode, if a load balance member returns on line, the team continues using the standby member rather than switching back to
using the load balance member. Consequently, the adapter that was initially designated a load balance member remains in an inactive state and becomes
the new standby member.
LiveLink
LiveLink is a feature of BASP that is available for the Smart Load Balancing (SLB) and SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) type of teaming. The purpose of
LiveLink is to detect link loss beyond the switch and to route traffic only through team members that have a live link.

Using the Broadcom Teaming Wizard

You can use the Broadcom Teaming Wizard to create a team, configure an existing team if a team has already been created, or create a VLAN.
1. Click the Team Management button at the bottom of the BACS 3 window, or from the View menu, select Navigate, then Team Management.
2. Click Teams at the top of the Team Management pane, or select one of the listed adapters.
3. Create or edit a team:
To create a new team, select Create a Team from the Team menu, or right-click one of the devices in the "Unassigned Adapters" section and
select Create a Team. This option is not available if there are no devices listed in the "Unassigned Adapters" sections, which means all adapters
are already assigned to teams.