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They will both present the same Hardware (MAC) address.

The Intel NIC teaming drivers are delivered in an option pack under the firmware releases, which you can download from the Sun website specific for the type of server you use.

When you install the NIC drivers, you will see that you will have an extra tab available in your network settings called Teaming.

You can access this by right-click the corresponding Network icon found under Network Connections in the Windows Control Panel, then select Properties to modify the network settings.

A team consists of two to eight ports that function as though they were a single NIC. This virtual NIC appears to the system as a single physical address and a single IP address.

Should one NIC in this team fail, the remaining NICs assume the failed NIC's traffic.

This fault tolerance is provided by all the configurations of teams available. When teamed, each NIC can also share the network traffic load, increasing the network throughput.

Each type of team provides varying levels of traffic management, (called load balancing), and all teams provide fault tolerance.

Please see named 100000000000031F000002554EC21AA7.jpg below.

You see here the three different Teaming options:

Express:

Express teaming is a quick way to group all the ports on a multi-port adapter into a Receive Load Balancing (RLB) team.

With Express Team selected, click the OK button to create the Express Team.

To uninstall the Express Team, select "Do not team this adapter"

An Express Team contains all ports of one multi-port adapter. Express Teams are only Receive Load Balancing (RLB) and do not support VLANs.

ANS Teaming:

An Advanced Networking Services (ANS) Team contains two or more ports. The ports may be on one or more adapters. The type of ANS Team dictates how these ports work together to increase performance and maintain connectivity.

A multi-port adapter cannot be part of an ANS and Express Team at the same time.

If we want to setup Teaming (ANS) we are gonna choose here for the option.

 Team with other adapters.  This does not mean you can not team in the same card, you can, as long as you will be within the specifications for teaming, which i will explain later.

Please see named 100000000000031F00000256B7FE8273.jpg below.

When clicking then on  new team  you will see the following screen, where you can give the Team a name, i used the default name here, called Team #0.

Please see named 10000000000003200000025532B57E4E.jpg below.

After giving it a name go to the next screen, here you can choose the network adapter(s) ports which you want to be in this Team, maximum up to eight ports in one Team.

Please see named 100000000000031C0000025546FF83DC.jpg below.

After this, you will get to the next screen in which you can choose the different features of Teaming.

Please see named 1000000000000320000002560BCBC7A1.jpg below.

Teaming Features include Failover protection, increased bandwidth through aggregation, and balancing of traffic among team members. Teaming Modes are AFT, SFT, ALB, RLB, and EtherChannel*/3ad (LA/FEC/GEC/3ad).

Adapter Fault Tolerance

Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) provides automatic redundancy for a server's network connection. In the case of switch port, cable, or adapter failure, you can maintain network connectivity.

Adapter Fault Tolerance is implemented with a primary adapter and one or more backup, or secondary, adapters. During normal operation, the backup adapters are in standby. If the link to the primary adapter fails, the link to the secondary adapter automatically takes over.

Configuration Notes

Adaptive Load Balancing

Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) provides load balancing for route-able transmit traffic and adapter fault tolerance for a team of two to eight adapters connected to the same switch. The software analyzes the send and transmit loading on each adapter and balances the rate across the adapters based on destination address.

ALB teams have Receive Load Balancing (RLB) enabled by default. With RLB enabled, the team also balances IP receive traffic.

Configuration Notes

Static Link Aggregation

Static Link Aggregation is a performance technology developed by Cisco to increase throughput between switches. This mode works with:

The transmission speed will never exceed the adapter base speed to any single address (per specification). Teams can contain two to eight adapters, but must match the capability of the switch. Adapter teams configured for Static Link Aggregation also provide the benefits of fault tolerance and load balancing. You do not need to set a primary adapter in this mode.

You must add an adapter to this type of team with link down. Otherwise, the adapter may lose its connection to the network. The reason for adding the adapter in this way is due to the way traffic is handled between a switch and a Static Link Aggregation team. If there is link down and the adapter is added to the switch channel before being added to the team, the switch begins forwarding traffic before the adapter is configured. Conversely, if the adapter is added to the team before being added to the switch channel, the adapter begins sending traffic before the switch is configured. You must also remove an adapter with link down.

Configuration Notes

This teaming mode works with any switch.

Switch Fault Tolerance

ANS Teaming cannot coexist with Express Teaming on multi-port adapters. If the ports on a multi-port adapter are grouped into an Express Team, none of the ports on the adapter are available for ANS Teaming.

For this document i will give an example of Static Link Aggregation (SLA).

Please see named 100000000000031E00000254F1345575.jpg below.

Next:

Please see named 100000000000031E00000255EB5D26B7.jpg below.

Please read the caution message good, that all adapters most run the same link speed and that the switch is capable of SLA.

Here below you see now that the team is created and working without any problems:

Please see named 100000000000033C000002517828CA0B.jpg below.

There are several ways to troubleshoot this, one of them is just to click on the troubleshoot button, to see if all the ports in the Team are active.

In the next example you see that the two ports are disabled and you have a problem, with the test switch and then run test you can verify if your switch is capable of running ANS Team mode.

Please see named 100000000000031D00000254153A9D37.jpg below.

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