Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Teaming ServicesNetXtreme User Guide
Broadcom
®
April 2017 • 2CS57XX-CDUM514-R Page 126
Application Considerations
• Teaming and Clustering—Microsoft Cluster Software
• Teaming and Network Backup
Teaming and Clustering—Microsoft Cluster Software
In each cluster node, it is strongly recommended that customers install at least two network adapters (on-board
adapters are acceptable). These interfaces serve two purposes. One adapter is used exclusively for intra-cluster
heartbeat communications. This is referred to as the private adapter and usually resides on a separate private
subnetwork. The other adapter is used for client communications and is referred to as the public adapter.
Multiple adapters may be used for each of these purposes: private, intracluster communications and public,
external client communications. All Broadcom teaming modes are supported with Microsoft Cluster Software for
the public adapter only. Private network adapter teaming is not supported. Microsoft indicates that the use of
teaming on the private interconnect of a server cluster is not supported because of delays that could possibly
occur in the transmission and receipt of heartbeat packets between the nodes. For best results, when you want
redundancy for the private interconnect, disable teaming and use the available ports to form a second private
interconnect. This achieves the same end result and provides dual, robust communication paths for the nodes
to communicate over.
For teaming in a clustered environment, customers are recommended to use the same brand of adapters.
Teaming and Network Backup
• Load Balancing and Failover
• Fault Tolerance
When you perform network backups in a nonteamed environment, overall throughput on a backup server
adapter can be easily impacted due to excessive traffic and adapter overloading. Depending on the number of
backup servers, data streams, and tape drive speed, backup traffic can easily consume a high percentage of
the network link bandwidth, thus impacting production data and tape backup performance. Network backups
usually consist of a dedicated backup server running with tape backup software such as NetBackup, Galaxy or
Backup Exec. Attached to the backup server is either a direct SCSI tape backup unit or a tape library connected
through a fibre channel storage area network (SAN). Systems that are backed up over the network are typically
called clients or remote servers and usually have a tape backup software agent installed.
Because there are four client servers, the backup server can simultaneously stream four backup jobs (one per
client) to a multidrive autoloader. Because of the single link between the switch and the backup server, however,
a 4-stream backup can easily saturate the adapter and link. If the adapter on the backup server operates at 1
Gbps (125 MB/s), and each client is able to stream data at 20 MB/s during tape backup, the throughput between
the backup server and switch will be at 80 MB/s (20 MB/s x 4), which is equivalent to 64% of the network
bandwidth. Although this is well within the network bandwidth range, the 64% constitutes a high percentage,
especially if other applications share the same link.
Note: Microsoft Network Load Balancing is not supported with Microsoft Cluster Software.
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