Issue 11
© Solarflare Communications 2014
210
Solarflare Server Adapter
User Guide
• Teams can be built from mixed media (i.e. UTP and Fibre).
• All protocols can be load balanced without transmit or receive modifications to frames.
• Multicast and broadcast traffic can be load balanced.
• Short recovery time in case of failover.
• Solarflare supports up to 64 link aggregation port groups per system.
• Solarflare supports up to 64 ports and VLANs in a link aggregation port group.
There are two methods of link aggregation, dynamic and static.
Dynamic Link Aggregation
Dynamic link aggregation uses the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) as defined in the IEEE
802.1AX standard (previously called 802.3ad) to negotiate the ports that will make up the team.
LACP must be enabled at both ends of the link for a team to be operational.
LACP will automatically determine which physical links can be aggregated, and will then perform the
aggregation.
An optional LACP marker protocol provides functionality when adding and removing physical links
ensuring that no frames are lost, reordered or duplicated.
Dynamic link aggregation offers both fault tolerance and load balancing.
Standby links are supported, but are not considered part of a link aggregation until a link within the
aggregation fails.
VLANs are supported within 802.1AX teams.
In the event of failover, the load on the failed link is redistributed over the remaining links.
shows a 802.1AX Team configuration.
NOTE:
Your switch must support 802.1AX (802.3ad) dynamic link aggregation to use this method of
teaming.