Load balancing

cdelafuente31 · ‎05-28-2009

To provide redundancy, We want to add a second NIC to a server. Each NIC will be connected to a different catalyst 2950 switch. We want to configure load balancing to use both NIC's at the same time.

Because each NIC will be connected to a different switch, I think I cannot configure LACP/NIC teaming. Which other solution can I use to provide load balancing to these NIC's?

Thanks in advance,

Collin Clark · ‎05-28-2009

You can configure them as ACTIVE/ACTIVE however the switches will complain that the MAC address is flapping (which can cause other problems). That being said you can;

1. Have one ACTIVE and one PASSIVE.

2. LACP two pairs of NIC's, each pair going to different switches and ACTIVE/PASSIVE by the LACP bundle. I don't deal with servers anymore so I'm not sure this 100% capable.

3. Get higher throughput NICs and ACTIVE/PASSIVE

cdelafuente31 · ‎05-29-2009

Thank you for the answer Collin, I think the third one is the best option. I will get two 1Gb NIC's (the first one will be active and the other one passive, it will not send packets).