IBM xSeries 440 8687, Hardware Maintenance Manual

Page: 60 / 258

VLANs offer you the ability to group users and devices together into logical
workgroups. This can simplify network administration when connecting clients to
servers that are geographically dispersed across a building, campus, or enterprise
network.
Typically, VLANs are configured at the switch and any computer can be a member
of one VLAN per installed network adapter. Your Ethernet controller supersedes this
by communicating directly with the switch, enabling multiple VLANs on a single
network adapter (up to 64 VLANs).
To set up VLAN membership, your Ethernet controller must be attached to a switch
that has VLAN capability.
To join a VLAN from Microsoft Windows NT 4.0:
1. Create a VLAN on the switch. Use the parameters you assign there to join the
VLAN from the server. See your switch documentation for more information.
2. Double-click the Network icon in the Control Panel window.
3. On the Adapters page, select the adapter you want to be on the VLAN and click
Properties .
4. Select the Load Balance/Virtual LAN tab.
5. Type the VLAN ID and VLAN name. The VLAN ID must match the VLAN ID of
the switch. The ID range is from 1 to 1000. The VLAN name is for information
only and does not need to match the name on the switch.
6. Click OK . Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each VLAN that you want the server to
join. The VLANs that you add are listed on the Configuration page.
7. Click Close and restart the computer.
Priority Packet mode
Priority Packet is a traffic-prioritization utility that enables you to set up filters to
process high-priority traffic before normal traffic. You can send information from
critical nodes or applications with an indicated priority. Because you set this priority
at the host or entry point of the network, the network devices can base forwarding
decisions on priority information defined in the packet.
IEEE 802.1p is an IEEE standard for tagging, or adding additional bytes of
information to packets with different priority levels. Packets are tagged with 4
additional bytes, which increase the packet size and indicate a priority level. When
you send these packets out on the network, the higher priority packets are
transferred first. Priority packet tagging (also known as Traffic Class Expediting)
enables the Ethernet controller to work with other elements of the network (such as
switches and routers) to deliver priority packets first. You can assign values to
packets based on their priorities when you use the IEEE 802.1p standard for packet
tagging. This method requires a network infrastructure that supports packet tagging.
The routing devices receiving and transferring these packets on your network must
support 802.1p for tagging to be effective.
To enable support for priority packets, you must go to the integrated Ethernet
controller Properties Advanced tab and enable the 802.1p QOS feature.
48
xSeries 440 Type 8687: Hardware Maintenance Manual