Dell Force10 S4810P - NIC Teaming

628 | Layer 2
www.dell.com | support.dell.com
NIC Teaming
NIC Teaming is available on the following platforms: c e s
NIC teaming is a feature that allows multiple network interface cards in a server to be represented by one
MAC address and one IP address in order to provide transparent redundancy, balancing, and to fully utilize
network adapter resources.
The following illustration shows a topology where two NICs have been teamed together. In this case, if the
primary NIC fails, traffic switches to the secondary NIC since they are represented by the same set of
addresses.
Figure 29-1. Redundant NICs with NIC Teaming
When NIC teaming is employed, consider that the server MAC address is originally learned on Port 0/1 of
the switch (Figure 29-2) and Port 0/5 is the failover port. When the NIC fails, the system automatically
sends an ARP request for the gateway or host NIC to resolve the ARP and refresh the egress interface.
When the ARP is resolved, the same MAC address is learned on the same port where the ARP is resolved
FTOS#show mac learning-limit
Interface Vlan Learning Dynamic Static Unknown SA
Slot/port Id Limit MAC count MAC count Drops
Gi 5/84 2 2 0 0 0
Gi 5/84 * 5 0 0 0
Gi 5/85 3 3 0 0 0
Gi 5/85 * 10 0 0 0
FTOS#show mac learning-limit interface gig 5/84
Interface Vlan Learning Dynamic Static Unknown SA
Slot/port Id Limit MAC count MAC count Drops
Gi 5/84 2 2 0 0 0
Gi 5/84 * 5 0 0 0
FTOS#show mac learning-limit interface gig 5/84 vlan 2
Interface Vlan Learning Dynamic Static Unknown SA
Slot/port Id Limit MAC count MAC count Drops
Gi 5/84 2 2 0 0 0
Task Command Syntax Command Mode
M
AC: A:B:C:D:E:F
IP: 1.1.1.1
fnC0025m
p
D:
E:
F
D
X
Port 0/1
Port 0/5
Active Link