Configuring The Switch For Microsoft Server Clustering - Dell Force10 Z9000 Configuration Manual

Figure 24-5. Server Clustering: Failover and Balancing Not Preserved
Microsoft Server Cluster: IP Cluster

Configuring the Switch for Microsoft Server Clustering

To preserve failover and balancing, the Dell Force10 switch must learn the cluster's virtual MAC address,
and it must forward traffic destined for the server cluster out all member ports in the VLAN connected to
the cluster. To ensure that this happens, you must configure the command
switch at the time that the Microsoft cluster is configured
As shown in
while the virtual MAC address representing the cluster is given in the payload. The
directs the system to discover that there are different MAC addresses in an ARP reply and associate the
virtual MAC address with the VLAN connected to the cluster. Then, all traffic destined for the cluster is
flooded out of all member ports. Since all of the servers in the cluster receive traffic, failover and balancing
are preserved.
Figure 24-6. Server Cluster: Failover and Balancing Preserved with the vlan-flooding Command
Microsoft Server Cluster: IP Cluster
| Layer 2
530
IP S1
Server1:
MAC S1
IP S2
Server2:
MAC S2
MAC Cluster
IP S3
Server3:
MAC S3
IP S4
Server4:
MAC S4
Figure 24-6, the server MAC address is given in the Ethernet frame header of the ARP reply,
IP S1
Server1:
MAC S1
IP S2
Server2:
MAC S2
MAC Cluster
IP S3
Server3:
MAC S3
IP S4
Server4:
MAC S4
vlan-flooding configured
VLAN 1
vlan-flooding
(Figure 24-6).
Source MAC: MAC S1
Source IP: IP S1
Destination MAC: MAC Client
Source MAC: MAC Cluster
Type: 0x0806
Ethernet Frame Header
ARP Reply
VLAN 1
Client
Data
fnC0028mp
on the Dell Force10
vlan-flooding
command
CRC
Pad
Client
Data
fnC0029mp