server 2012 nic teaming switch recommendation

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rhys24

New Member
Jun 2, 2013
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Hi,

Current have 2 servers running window server 2012 and wanted to take advantage of the nic teaming. Now each server has quad network cards running through a hp procurve 2848.

Now we have tried everything we know but can't get the switch to take advantage of this new windows feature. and think it due to the why lacp works on this switch.

Can anyone suggest a new switch or 2nd hand switch that would give good results, we only require layer 2. Reading some post already I know that these work.

dell powerconnect 6248 (yes i know its level3) & Netgear GSM7224V2 any other suggestions? Is the dell or the netgear a good choice otherwise?

Thanks
 
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PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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What, exactly, are you trying to achieve with NIC Teaming? How do you define "good results"? You've said that both servers are running Server 2012, but how many client machines are using them? What are the client's running? Etc.

A better understanding of your setup and your objectives will get you better answers.
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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go buy that xsm7224s off ebay - you will find no better deal on the planet.
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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It's L2+ but you can buy an L3 license, but it's kind of crazy to use a cut-through switch to route.

IF someone is going to bid on it, post here, so we don't bid against each other. It will sell for $1000.

From what I've googled its identical to the powerconnect 8024F except it has a cavium octeon cn5230 control plane cpu, 512meg of sodimm ecc, and 128meg apacer slc compact flash. The Dell is running the same basic firmware except it has progressed far beyond where netgear has taken it.

Before you get wise , the cpu is completely different, and you will fry it if you try to cross flash - the control plane uses a broadcom out of the box design that ran run on mips64/arm/x86/powerpc and the dataplane is basically the same BCM56820 .

So its a gimped out L2 10gbe switch that is great for TOR 10gbe only compared to the powerconnect 8024f. Cut-through kind of makes it hard to do 1gbe/10gbe mixing but hey 10gbe nic's are a dime a dozen.

It's not mine, and I can't comment on price since its far below what I'd pay for it(demo price is way more than this), but I do happen to have press review demo on loan right now to play with.

That being said for a grand, you will find nothing on the planet that comes near that price. $3000 used is where the powerconnect 8024f/juniper ex2500 sit around. Odd thing is that netgears chassis switch are extreme 8800's. Makes you wonder where this came from.

Either way it would be silly to bid against each other
 
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PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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We've hijacked rhys24's thread...I'm gonna start a new one on this so that he can have a chance to get his question answered without all our noise.
 
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rhys24

New Member
Jun 2, 2013
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hi thanks for the reply.

for the nic teaming looking at speeding up transfer between single machines as some of the workstations have dual nic cards. and for server backups i'd like transfer speeds to be close to 300mb/s as all the server have fast raids.

all clients are running windows 8. trying to achieve something like this here
 
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Lost-Benji

Member
Jan 21, 2013
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The arse end of the planet
Not sure what your doing wrong but when I have tested S2012 with teaming, it was simple and worked with dumb and managed switches. I ended up putting them into a Old Linksys 48-port GbE L3 switch, no worries.
 
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rhys24

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Jun 2, 2013
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Lost-Benji said:
Not sure what your doing wrong but when I have tested S2012 with teaming, it was simple and worked with dumb and managed switches. I ended up putting them into a Old Linksys 48-port GbE L3 switch, no worries.
Click to expand...
currently using a Hp 2848, lacp is setup on it. but trying to maximise the link between 2 machines, and just can't seem to get over 1 nic card at 100% you said l3 switch maybe it does different hashing?
 
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PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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So your servers are running MS Server 2012. Your clients are all Windows 8. Assume in that configuration you are using SMB (windows file sharing) for the transfers?

If so you don't need "teaming" at all. Short story on LAG groups is that you only get the speed of one link of the LAG between any two machines. The LAG group has benefit if it is on a server serving multiple client hosts so that the aggregated speed of all the clients at the server end fill up the LAG. But between the server and any single client you max out at the speed of one link (also true between two servers).

Windows 8/Server 2012 implements SMB multipath. You don't have to do anything to turn it on. Just configure each link on each machine with its own address and file-share away. SMB will split the traffic across all the links available and give you the effect you are after.

Member Odditory brought this to the attention of the forum and several of us tested. See here, which includes links to more professional writeups form MS and others.
 
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rhys24

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Jun 2, 2013
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PigLover said:
Member Odditory brought this to the attention of the forum and several of us tested. See here, which includes links to more professional writeups form MS and others.
Click to expand...
Yes thats exactly it, all servers are using smb.

on the main server

Code: 
PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-SmbMultichannelConnection

Server Name    Selected       Client IP      Server IP      Client         Server         Client RSS     Client RDMA
                                                            Interface      Interface      Capable        Capable
                                                            Index          Index
-----------    --------       ---------      ---------      -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------
#####-B     True           192.168.1.#####   192.168.1.####  26             38             True           False


PS C:\Windows\system32>
PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-SmbClientNetworkInterface

Interface Index     RSS Capable         RDMA Capable        Speed               IpAddresses         Friendly Name
---------------     -----------         ------------        -----               -----------         -------------
12                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::ccaf:ff76... Ethernet
18                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:192.... isatap.{51790B8E...
22                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:169.... isatap.{1B496F17...
26                  True                False               5 Gbps              {fe80::85fa:9c9b... zz
24                  False               False               100 Kbps            {fe80::ffff:ffff... Teredo Tunneling...
Then on the backup server

Code: 
PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-SmbMultichannelConnection

Server Name    Selected       Client IP      Server IP      Client         Server         Client RSS     Client RDMA
                                                            Interface      Interface      Capable        Capable
                                                            Index          Index
-----------    --------       ---------      ---------      -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------
######       True           192.168.1.####  192.168.1.###   38             26             True           False


PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-SmbClientNetworkInterface

Interface Index     RSS Capable         RDMA Capable        Speed               IpAddresses         Friendly Name
---------------     -----------         ------------        -----               -----------         -------------
38                  True                False               4 Gbps              {fe80::e43d:8db:... abc
18                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:192.... isatap.{456C364A...
14                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::8137:14da... NIC2
15                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::39c8:181b... NIC1
22                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:169.... isatap.{1145D570...
23                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:169.... isatap.{681D64D0...
19                  False               False               100 Kbps            {fe80::ffff:ffff... Teredo Tunneling...
Anything else I can check?
 
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rhys24

New Member
Jun 2, 2013
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Fzdog2 said:
As PigLover stated, Server2012 and Win8 take care of all the SMB multipathing, there is no need to setup LAGG or LACP teaming.

I was having an issue getting it to work on my workstation, and found out some NIC's are not compatible. Check out this site for the Powershell commands to ensure compatibility:
Windows Server 2012 File Server Tip: Make sure your network interfaces are RSS-capable - Jose Barreto's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs
Click to expand...
They both say true on the rss capable, as how the teaming works is that it creates an interface which is rss capable.

If i disable lacp on the switch, I cant access the machines then lacp fails!

Code: 
PS C:\Windows\system32>  Get-SmbServerNetworkInterface

Scope Name          Interface Index     RSS Capable         RDMA Capable        Speed               IpAddress
----------          ---------------     -----------         ------------        -----               ---------
*                   38                  True                False               4 Gbps              fe80::e43d:8db:e...
*                   38                  True                False               4 Gbps              192.168.1.150


PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-SmbClientNetworkInterface

Interface Index     RSS Capable         RDMA Capable        Speed               IpAddresses         Friendly Name
---------------     -----------         ------------        -----               -----------         -------------
38                  True                False               4 Gbps              {fe80::e43d:8db:... abc
18                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:192.... isatap.{456C364A...
14                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::8137:14da... NIC2
15                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::39c8:181b... NIC1
22                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:169.... isatap.{1145D570...
23                  False               False               0  bps              {fe80::5efe:169.... isatap.{681D64D0...
19                  False               False               100 Kbps            {fe80::ffff:ffff... Teredo Tunneling...
 
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PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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I don't think you are understanding how SMB Multipath works. Don't team them! Turn off LACP on the switch. Turn off teaming on the Servers and Clients. If you do teaming you will not get the performance you want.

Set up your NICs as separate interfaces. Give each interface its own address. Let SMB do the work for you. Its really that simple.
 
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rhys24

New Member
Jun 2, 2013
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PigLover said:
I don't think you are understanding how SMB Multipath works. Don't team them! Turn off LACP on the switch. Turn off teaming on the Servers and Clients. If you do teaming you will not get the performance you want.

Set up your NICs as separate interfaces. Give each interface its own address. Let SMB do the work for you. Its really that simple.
Click to expand...
Ok I will give what your saying a try,

problem I have is that when I enable all the network cards, I can't access the server anymore, I assign 1 network card with an ip and let the other pick up dhcp I can't access the server from any of the machines. Maybe I'm doing something seriously wrong here!
 
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PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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You need to ensure that both cards get an address on the same subnet. Two NICs, both assigned IPs on the same subnet and both on the same subnet and preferably using the same default gateway. In the best case you want both the clients and the switches all on the same subnet - otherwise your router becomes the bottleneck.
 
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rhys24

New Member
Jun 2, 2013
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Thanks piglover, tried that, all network cards on same subnet 255,255,255,0 gateway 192.168.1.1 even changed the binding order so that the network card with the main server ip was at the top, but can't access the server then from any pc.
 
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