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IBM MCS Server RUnning Unity with NIC Teaming

angel-moon
Level 3
Level 3

All,

has anyone ever run NIC teaming on and IBM MCS Server with Unity before? At question is the fact that many severs create a virtual MAC address that is different from either of the actual MACs when you team NICs. If this is the case on the IBM Servers then we may need to request an updated license. The servers are branded as Cisco MCS-7835-I1

units.

Thanks in advance. All replies rated!

6 Replies 6

milucero
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

The only teaming that is allowed with Unity is NFT. You cannot do load balencing across two NIC's with Unity, as this will resort in choppy audio, Unity sources the RTP traffic from the active MAC and can listen to only one, so if there are two active it will switch between the two, ruslting in silence getting inserted the recording.

You can take a look at this link for more information;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/products_tech_note09186a00801d1c56.shtml

Adam Thompson
Level 4
Level 4

Our customer has been running Unity on an MCS-7845 with NIC teaming for the past 2 years (although these are HP servers). The team is set for failover only, not load balancing and failover. I would imagine that NIC teaming on HP servers is very similar to how it is done on IBM.

If you do decided to go this route, you will need to get updated license files with the new, virtual MAC address that is created, but you already knew that.

Please rate if helpful

Ronald Spencer
Level 1
Level 1

I am currently running the same setup on 2 servers (for 2 unity applications -Unity Unified messaging for Domino and Unity voicemail). We have NIC Teaming set up on both and it has been our experience that with the BACS (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 2) the Team takes the MAC address of one or the other NIC (vs creating a virtual address).

The one thing that concerns me now is that our TEAM is setup as Smart Load Balancing. Though, I take some solace in knowing that it has been running in the configuration for 2 years.

Hi -

For HP servers, if you decide to do NIC teaming, you can select the MAC address to use for the team. Select the MAC address you have in your Unity license file(s) and you are good to go. We also use adaptive-fault tolerant, not load balance. FYI - I experienced a NIC failure on Unity and as reported, you get bad audio files.

Regards, Ginger

Hi,

I have an MCS7825i4 server that I use for the ARC Attendant Console. It runs windows 2003 SP2. Question is: where can I download the NIC teaming driver? We installed windows using a regular Windows disk and not the Cisco-supplied OS disk.

Thanks.

Vince

Hi

According to this doc: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6790/ps5748/ps378/product_solution_overview0900aecd80091615.html

The 7825-I4 is an IBM IBM x3250-M2. You can use that model number to search the IBM drivers page for the things you need:

http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/systemx/selectFixes

I think the NIC teaming comes with the Network Drivers.

Regards

Aaron

Please rate helpful posts...

Aaron Please remember to rate helpful posts to identify useful responses, and mark 'Answered' if appropriate!
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