Initializing the Management Programs
89
Load Balance/Virtual LANs
The Load Balance/Virtual LANs screen allows you to configure advanced features. Any
available NIC can be configured as part of a team. Teaming is a method of grouping
multiple NICs to a virtual NIC (bundling multiple NICs to appear as a single NIC). The
benefit of this approach is load balancing.
By selecting each of the available NICs, and moving it to the Load Balance Members
column, this appears as one NIC. Each member in the Load Balance Member list shares
the traffic burden of all three members.
The Standby Member field is used to permit the selection of one of the team members
to handle traffic, should all other members in the Load Balance Member list fail (failover).
The selected Standby Member will not handle any traffic unless all Load Balance Members
fail. When one Load Balance Member (or more) is restored (fail-back), traffic will then be
handled by the restored team member(s).
1
Right-click the node of Load Balance tree to display a drop-down menu that is
associated with the selected node type.
2
For the team node, the menu items are
Delete
and
Properties
. You can either select
Delete
to remove the highlighted team or select Properties to display the Team
Properties dialog box.
3
From the Team Properties dialog box, you can change the team name and/or change
the team type.
4
For the adapter node, the menu items are
Unassign
and
Properties
. You can select
Unassign
to remove the selected adapter from the team or select Properties to display
the adapter Properties. All display in adapter Properties are read-only.
5
For the VLAN node, the menu items are
Delete
and
Properties
. You can either select
Delete to remove the highlighted VLAN or select Properties to display the VLAN
Properties. The only writable item on this dialog box is the VLAN name.
Creating a New Team
1
From the Load Balance/Virtual LAN window, click
Create Team
.
This displays the Add New Team window.
2
Enter a team name in the Name field, then select the Team Type and click
OK
.
3
Add an available NIC to the team:
■
In the Available Adapters list, select the NIC(s) that you want to add to the team
you created in the previous step. Move the selected NIC(s) to the Team Members
list box using the double arrows.
■
When you have finished configuring failover teams, click
OK
or
Apply
to accept
the changes.
The minimum number of characters that can be used in a team name is one. The
maximum number of characters that can be used in a team name is 39. A team name
cannot begin with spaces. If you attempt to use an identical team name, an error
message displays indicating that the entered name already exists. The maximum
number of members in a team is eight.
NOTE:
At least one NIC must be displayed in the Team Members list box.
