Dell server with two 10 gig interfaces running VM

[chuck-jenkins]

We have a few servers that will have two ten gig interfaces. I would like to connect them to two 5548's for redundancy. What are the options for this type of connection. I want to trunk from one 4548 to one interface on the server and also trunk from interface two on the server to my other 5548. I don't know the server lingo for this type connection. The server will just be an application server not a sans box. If one interface drops on 5548-A i want all traffic to flow to the server through the interface in 5548-B.

Thank You.

[Leo Laohoo]

"5548" you mean a Nexus 5548?

If this is the case, if you connect two Nexus 5548 together via vPC you can connect one 10 Gbps to the first unit and connect the second 10 Gbps to the second unit. 

[Steve Fuller]

Hi Chuck,

NIC teaming or NIC bonding is the name the server or NIC manufacturers typically use to refer to the software that configures two or more NICs in such a way that they appear to operate either as a single link or as an active/standby "team".

The capabilities can vary by server vendor, NIC vendor and server Operating System so it would help if you can provide details of Operating System and NICs that'll be running on the Dell server.

The following table provides details of a number of NIC vendors, the teaming capabilities i.e., active/standby, active/active etc., and the name the vendor uses for the team type. Once you know the OS and NIC, a Google search using the appropriate team name should give you plenty more information if you need it.

In the table, columns 2-4 are known as "switch independent" teams i.e., there's no special configuration or capabilities required of the switch, and columns 5 and 6 are "switch dependant" teams in that they do require specific capabilities and configuration of the switch to match the server.

OS/NIC	Active/Standby	Active/Active (Rx)	Active/Active (Tx/Rx)	Static LAG	Dynamic LAG
Broadcom	Smart Load Balancing	N.A.	Smart Load Balancing	Generic Trunk	Link Aggregation
HP	Network Fault Tolerant	Transmit Load Balance	N.A.	Switch Assisted Load Balance	802.3ad Dynamic
Intel	Switch Fault Tolerant	Adaptive Load Balance	N.A.	Static Link Aggregation	Dynamic Link aggregation
Linux	active-backup (mode=1)	balance-tlb (mode=5)	balance-alb (mode=6)	N.A.	802.3ad (mode=4)
VMware ESxi	Explicit failover order	N.A.	i) Route based on originating virtual port ID ii) Route based on MAC hash	Route baed on IP hash	Link Aggregation Control Protocol

As Leo says, using Cisco virtual Port Channel (vPC) is a good option when connecting servers to Nexus 5500 series switches, providing the server OS supports IEEE 802.3ad (now 802.1AX) Link Aggregation. Otherwise you'd ideally want to go for a team that supports active/active configuration such that you can use all NICs at the same time.

Regards