redundant uplink for servers connected to switches

[paulnigel]

Hi,

i need to install 2 network cards to each server, so there will be two links going to 2 core switches running HSRP. the NICs are from different vendors. what must I do on the switch, can i put the 2 links in different VLANs?

[leonvd79]

I don't know what OS the servers are running, but you should consider NIC teaming. The fact that the NICs are from different vendors make this implementation challenging.

Microsoft uses a feature called network load-balancing (NLB) to multi-home servers on the network.

HTH

--Leon

* Please rate posts

[paulnigel]

Hi Leon,

thanks for the reply as i need to get this up fast.

I am using windows2003 servers and 3com and IBM NICs, they support teaming too. for each card i will need an ip address + 1 virtual ip. must i put the two links in the same vlan? what about the virtual ip, must it be in the same range as the NIC's IP? What I must do on the switch side?

[leonvd79]

In case of Microsoft NLB and most load-balancing/teaming features both interfaces belong to the same VLAN.

The server uses a single IP Address which is associated with the virtual NLB interface.

HTH

Leon

* Please rate posts.

[paulnigel]

hi Leon,

Thanks much. so on the cisco switches side, i do not have to do anything, simply assign 1 port for each link on the core switches which is in the same VLAN as the NICs.

[paulnigel]

hi folks,

i hope you guys don't run out of patience coz i am very new to cisco.

i read something on the STP, STP can put one port into blocking and the other forwarding, so if I enable STP on the switches, will it works for this case?

I have 3com edge switches connected to the 2 cisco core switches, i am running VLANs. I understand that cisco allowed one instance of STP per VLAN over the 802.1q trunk. but 3Com allowed only 1 STP instance on a single 802.1q trunk which carries multiple VLANs. I managed to get the 3Com and Cisco to trunk all my VLANs, right now I have to configure STP, What do you folks recommend?