IBM eServer BladeCenter HS20 Type 8832, Maintenance And Troubleshooting Manual

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Configuring the Gigabit Ethernet controllers
Two Ethernet controllers are integrated on the blade server system board. Each
controller provides a 1000-Mbps full-duplex interface for connecting to one of the
Ethernet-compatible switch modules in switch-module bays 1 and 2, which enables
simultaneous transmission and reception of data on the Ethernet local area network
(LAN). Each Ethernet controller on the system board is routed to a different switch
module in switch-module bay 1 or bay 2. The routing from Ethernet controller to
switch-module bay will vary based on blade server type and the operating system
that is installed. See “Blade server Ethernet controller enumeration” on page 18 for
information about how to determine the routing from Ethernet controller to
switch-module bay for the blade server.
Note: Other types of blade servers, such as the BladeCenter HS20 Type 8678
blade server, that are installed in the same BladeCenter unit as this
BladeCenter HS20 Type 8832 blade server might have different Ethernet
controller routing. See the documentation that comes with the other blade
servers for detailed information.
You do not need to set any jumpers or configure the controllers for the blade server
operating system. However, you must install a device driver to enable the blade
server operating system to address the Ethernet controllers. For device drivers and
information about configuring the Ethernet controllers, see the
Broadcom NetXtreme
Gigabit Ethernet Software CD that comes with the blade server. For updated
information about configuring the controllers, go to the IBM Support Web site at
http://www.ibm.com/pc/support/.
The Ethernet controllers support failover, which provides automatic redundancy for
the Ethernet controllers. You can configure either one of the integrated Ethernet
controllers as the primary Ethernet controller. If you have configured the controllers
for failover and the primary link fails, the secondary controller takes over. When the
primary link is restored, the Ethernet traffic switches back to the primary Ethernet
controller. (See the operating system device driver documentation for information
about configuring for failover.)
Important: To support failover on the blade server Ethernet controllers, the Ethernet
switch modules in the BladeCenter unit must have identical configurations to each
other.
Chapter 3. Configuration
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