Broadcom Teaming Services: Broadcom NetXtreme II® Network Adapter User Guide
file:///C|/Users/Nalina_N_S/Documents/NetXtremeII/English/teamsvcs.htm[9/5/2014 3:45:08 PM]
Multivendor teaming – Supported (Must include at least one Broadcom Ethernet adapter as a team member)
Applications
Dynamic trunking works with switches that support IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation dynamic mode using LACP. Inbound load
balancing is switch dependent. In general, the switch traffic is load balanced based on L2 addresses. In this case, all network
protocols such as IP, IPX, and NetBEUI are load balanced. Therefore, this is the recommended teaming mode when the switch
supports LACP, except when switch fault tolerance is required. SLB is the only teaming mode that supports switch fault
tolerance.
Configuration Recommendations
Dynamic trunking supports connecting the teamed ports to switches as long as they are on the same broadcast domain and
supports IEEE 802.3ad LACP trunking. It does not support connecting to a router or Layer 3 switches since the ports must be
on the same subnet.
LiveLink™
LiveLink™ is a feature of BASP that is available for the Smart Load Balancing (SLB) and SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable) types 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. This function is accomplished though the teaming software. The teaming software periodically probes (issues
a link packet from each team member) one or more specified target network device(s). The probe target(s) responds when it
receives the link packet. If a team member does not detect the response within a specified amount of time, this indicates that
the link has been lost, and the teaming software discontinues passing traffic through that team member. Later, if that team
member begins to detect a response from a probe target, this indicates that the link has been restored, and the teaming
software automatically resumes passing traffic through that team member. LiveLink works only with TCP/IP.
LiveLink™ functionality is supported in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems. For similar functionality in Linux
operating systems, see the Channel Bonding information in your Red Hat documentation.
Attributes of the Features Associated with Each Type of Team
The attributes of the features associated with each type of team are summarized in
Table 5
.
Table 5: Attributes
Feature
Attribute
Smart Load Balancing™
User interface
Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS)
Number of teams
Maximum 16
Number of adapters per team Maximum 8
Hot replace
Yes
Hot add
Yes
Hot remove
Yes
Link speed support
Different speeds
Frame protocol
IP
Incoming packet management BASP
Outgoing packet management BASP
LiveLink support
Yes
Failover event
Loss of link
Failover time
<500 ms
Fallback time
1.5 s
b
(approximate)
MAC address
Different
Multivendor teaming
Yes
Generic Trunking
User interface
Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS)
Number of teams
Maximum 16
Number of adapters per team Maximum 8
