IBM 866251Y - Netfinity 5500 M20, Hardware Maintenance Manual

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How you test the Ethernet controller or adapter
depends on which operating system is being used
(see “Configuring the ethernet controller” on
page 35).
Failover for redundant Ethernet
The Netfinity 5500 M20 has an integrated Ethernet
controller. The IBM Netfinity 10/100 Fault Tolerant Adapter
is an optional redundant network interface card (NIC
adapter) that you can install in the server. If you install
this NIC adapter and connect it to the same logical
segment as the primary Ethernet controller, you can
configure the server to support a
failover function. You
can configure either the integrated Ethernet controller or
the NIC adapter as the primary Ethernet controller. In
failover mode, if the primary Ethernet controller detects a
link failure, all Ethernet traffic associated with it is switched
to the redundant (secondary) controller. This switching
occurs without any user intervention. Applications with
active sessions do not experience any data loss. When
the primary link is restored to an operational state, the
Ethernet traffic automatically switches back to the primary
Ethernet controller.
Note that only one controller in the redundant pair is active
at any given time. For example, if the primary Ethernet
controller is active, then the secondary Ethernet controller
cannot be used for any other network operation.
Note
The operating system determines the maximum
number of IBM Netfinity 10/100 Fault Tolerant
Adapters that you can install in the server. See the
documentation that comes with the adapter for more
information.
Special considerations when combining
failover and hot-plug functions:
If the operating system supports hot-plug PCI adapters and
the optional redundant NIC adapter is installed in a
hot-plug PCI slot, you can replace the NIC adapter without
powering off the server — even if it is the primary Ethernet
controller. Disconnecting the Ethernet cable from the
primary Ethernet controller will cause the Ethernet traffic to
be automatically switched to the secondary Ethernet
controller. This can be very useful when a network
problem is caused by faulty adapter hardware or when you
want to upgrade the primary adapter hardware.
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Netfinity Server HMM