Back to Contents Page

Teaming for Novell NetWare* 5.1 through 6.x: Intel® Network Adapters User Guide

Overview
VLAN (Virtual LAN)
Teaming Requirements
Command Lines
Allocating Memory
Usage Notes
Removing a Team
Troubleshooting 

Overview

• Driver name: iANS.LAN
• Location on CD-ROM: PRO100\NWSERVER (for Intel PRO/100 adapters) or PRO1000\NWSERVER (for Intel PRO/1000 adapters)

iANS.LAN is the Intel software for NetWare* that provides a variety of Intel Advanced Network Services (iANS). iANS includes teaming and VLAN-based features.

Teaming includes:

• Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT)
• Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)
• Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT)
• Port Aggregation - Link Aggregation (static and dynamic IEEE 802.3ad), Cisco Fast EtherChannel* (FEC) or Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC)
• VLAN (Virtual LAN) support of IEEE 802.1Q

See Set Up Adapter Teaming for complete descriptions of these modes.

See the Example Files for detailed instructions on configuring teaming in NetWare.

Back to Top

VLAN (Virtual LAN)

See the VLAN page for a complete description of VLANs.

See the Example Files for detailed instructions on configuring VLANs in NetWare.

General Configuration Notes

• When creating VLANs in NetWare, make sure all virtual adapters use the same frame type.
• There is a limit of 64 VLANs per NetWare server.
• Even if you have a single adapter set up for VLANs, it is called a team or "virtual adapter."

Example for a single 802.1Q VLAN Team:

Load ce100b slot=5 frame=ethernet_802.3 name=e83
Load ians vlanid=2 frame=ethernet_802.3 name=T1-VL2 team=1
Load ians vlanid=3 frame=ethernet_802.3 name=T1-VL3 team=1
Bind ians e83 team=1
Load ians commit mode=AFT team=1
Bind ipx T1-VL2 net=2
Bind ipx T1-VL3 net=3)

In order to function properly, the adapters configured for VLAN must be connected to a "tagged" port (called a trunk port by Cisco) on an 802.1Q-capable switch.

See the Example Files for several examples of configuring teams, VLANs, and both.

Back to Top

Teaming Requirements

• You must have at least one Intel server adapter in the team.
• All adapters in a team must use the same frame type.
• All adapters must be connected to a switch with matching capabilities, and the switch must be set to match the settings that you enable on your adapters.
• Link all adapters of a team to the same switch using the same speed and duplex; otherwise, performance is greatly degraded.

• When using iANS.LAN, do NOT bind the network protocols (IPX, IP, etc) directly to the base driver of an adapter used with iANS. Instead, bind iANS to the base driver and the protocol(s) to iANS. Doing otherwise can cause routing error messages, but most likely the protocols bound directly to the base drivers will simply not work.
• Do not use NWCONFIG.NLM to configure iANS.LAN. You may use it to install the module (done automatically if the utility is used to install CE1000), but do not use it to set the configuration. Alternatively, you can manually copy the iANS driver to sys:\system. To configure to run automatically, set up a configuration NCF file which can be called from AUTOEXEC.NCF.

Server Adapters that support Teaming and VLAN (802.1Q):

Some advanced features are also adapter dependent as the table below depicts.

AFT - Adapter Fault Tolerance
ALB - Adaptive Load Balancing
SFT - Switch Fault Tolerance
FEC - Fast EtherChannel (used here to include Intel Link Aggregation and static 802.3ad)
GEC - Gigabit EtherChannel (used here to include Intel Link Aggregation and static 802.3ad)
VLAN - 802.1Q VLANs
AD - IEEE 802.3ad teaming mode

NOTE: Copper gigabit adapters may be teamed with Intel PRO/100 adapters at 10 or 100 Mbps or with adapters from other vendors.

NOTE: SFT mode only allows for two adapters in the team.

The iANS driver (required for all iANS features) for Intel PRO/100 as well as Intel PRO/1000 adapters is located at PRO100\NWSERVER\iANS.LAN and PRO1000\NWSERVER\iANS.LAN.

Multi-Vendor Teaming

• FEC/GEC and static 802.3ad modes support all frame types, and IPX may also be used.
• AFT, ALB, and SFT modes using the Ethernet_II frametype and IP protocol may include other vendors' adapters in the multi-vendor team.

Only some vendors support LAN drivers that register NESL events. These drivers are required for MVT support.

NOTE: Refer to your third-party documentation to determine whether NESL events are supported.

MVT supports mixed speed adapters in AFT, ALB, and SFT modes. MVT Load Balancing is provided at layer 3 for TCP, UDP (including multicast), and IP/Snap protocols.

Hot Add and Remove of non-Intel adapters may be done in FEC/GEC and 802.3ad modes only.

NOTE: If a failover occurs, or if the primary adapter is changed, the MAC address of the team changes. Clients are notified by an ARP broadcast. When any team member receives an ARP request, the iANS software responds only with the MAC address for the current primary adapter.

Back to Top

Command Lines

Basic Structure:

1. LOAD base driver (e.g. CE100B.LAN or CE1000.LAN) with appropriate parameters, including frame size.
2. LOAD iANS driver with appropriate parameters, including frame size.
   • For a VLAN, include a VLAN ID number.
   • For a VLAN or multiple frame type configuration, include a name.
   • For a multiple team setup include a team number.
3. BIND iANS driver to the adapter name.
   • If creating multiple teams, include the team # here to define which team uses which adapter(s).
   • If you want to specify which adapter is to be primary or secondary, include it here.
4. Create the team: LOAD iANS COMMIT <mode>.
   • <mode> distinguishes which advanced services to enable (AFT, ALB, FEC, SFT, GEC, AD).
   • If creating multiple teams, include the team number.
5. BIND the protocol to the iANS driver using the name that was assigned when iANS was loaded.

If you are using only one frame type, a single team and no VLAN, you can bind the protocol directly to the iANS driver without using an assigned name. Include a net=n number, especially in a script since the system requests the number if not given.

Example of Mixed Speed Adapter Fault Tolerance Team:

Load CE100b name=100Meg
Load CE1000 name=Gigabit
Load iANS
Bind iANS Gigabit Primary
Bind iANS 100Meg
Load iANS COMMIT MODE=AFT
Bind IPX iANS Net=2
Bind IP iANS ADDR=128.181.11.1 MASK=255.255.0.0

For more information on specific load commands for AFT, ALB or FEC see the Adapter Teaming Example Files.

Back to Top

Allocating Memory

When using multiple VLANs, the server's default packet buffers will probably need to be increased. To do this, add the following lines to the STARTUP.NCF file which is located in the same directory from which NetWare is launched - usually C:\NWSERVER\STARTUP.NCF

SET MINIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS = 500 (or higher)
SET MAXIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS = 2000 (or higher)

"SET MINIMUM PACKET" designates the minimum number of packet receive buffers the system will allocate and "SET MAXIMUM PACKET" designates the maximum. Make sure that the maximum setting is equal to or greater than the minimum setting. The number of buffers required is based on the number of VLANs and which teaming features are in use.

For every virtual adapter, team, or VLAN used, iANS will request 64 buffers. When in Adaptive Load Balancing modes (ALB, FEC/GEC and Link Aggregation - static IEEE 802.3ad), 64 buffers are needed for each adapter in the team. The non-load balancing AFT and SFT modes only require 64 buffers for the team.

As an example, an ALB team of two adapters that uses 12 VLANs would require 64 [buffers] * 2 [adapters] * 12 [VLANs] = 1536 for the minimum packet receive buffers. This number is in addition to any other buffers that the server may require for other purposes, including other adapters.

The default amount of memory used by each NetWare receive buffer is approximately 4K (varies slightly with different versions). If the extra memory requirement is a problem, there are several things that can be done to reduce the impact:

• If Ethernet is the only network topology the server uses, the size of the buffer can be reduced to 2000 bytes (the maximum Ethernet frame size plus some out of band data used by iANS) without impacting the performance of the server. This is done by adding the following line to the STARTUP.NCF file:
  
  SET MAXIMUM PHYSICAL RECEIVE PACKET SIZE = 2000

NOTE: This does not work if Ethernet jumbo frames are in use. In fact, the packet size must be increased to accommodate the jumbo frames.

• A keyword is included for iANS that allows the administrator to reduce the buffer requirement per VLAN from 64 down to as low as 32, however, this will negatively impact the server's performance. The syntax is:

  LOAD IANS TX_ECBS_TO_USE = X

  where "X" is the number of buffers to use for each VLAN.

Back to Top

Usage Notes

• Gigabit adapters - Intel copper-based gigabit server adapters (e.g., Intel PRO/1000 T, PRO/1000 XT) may be teamed with Intel PRO/100 server adapters for AFT, ALB, SFT, FEC, and AD modes.
• Required Settings in STARTUP.NCF
      SET MINIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS = 500 (or larger)
      SET MAXIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS = 2000 (or larger)
• Display the current status for all adapters in a iANS team. Example:
      LOAD iANS STATUS team=n (where n=team number)
• Create the primary adapter. Example:
      BIND iANS CE100B_1_E82 PRIMARY
  This can only be done in the BIND command.
• When using iANS with SMP mode enabled, do not use the Stop Processors command after loading iANS.LAN. The Novell OS does not currently have a mechanism for informing the intermediate driver of a change in the number of active processors, and this could lead to a server abend if iANS attempts to use a deactivated processor.
• When a multiple adapter team is created (other than AFT), it uses all the functionality of the least capable adapter in the team. In order to add an adapter to an existing team it must have the same base functionality enabled as that adapter of the lowest common feature set in the team.
• iANS probes are turned off by default when only Ethernet_802.2 and/or Ethernet_802.3 frame types are in use. This is due to the fact that Ethernet_802.2 and Ethernet_802.3 frame types may not allow iANS probes to be sent correctly and may cause one or more adapters to fail over unnecessarily. If you intend to use the probe feature of iANS, Intel recommends that you load the frame types Ethernet_II or Ethernet_Snap. (You do not need to bind any protocols to these frame types.)

• When using 802.3ad dynamic teaming mode with the IPX protocol, Ethernet_II must be enabled.

Back to Top

Removing a Team 

To remove a team, unload iANS.LAN by typing UNLOAD IANS at the console. Remember to comment out any lines you added to autoexec.ncf or a batch file if you do not want them to reload when you restart the server.

Back to Top

Troubleshooting

• When IANS.LAN forms a team, it may report the following error message: "Primary adapter does not sense any probes. Possible reason, partitioned team."
  In addition, if VLANs are enabled at the switch, the adapter will continuously fail over while there is no traffic on the network. This has been observed when connected to Extreme Summit2 and Summit4.2 switches.
  This fail-over does not affect performance. But the error message can be turned off with the command PROBES = OFF.
• If, at commit, you receive the ERROR MESSAGE: "Failed to create new team," ensure the following:
  a. All adapters have loaded drivers and have the same frame types loaded.
  b. iANS is loaded once for each VLAN and frame type.
  c. All adapters are connected to the same switch (unless using SFT).
  d. iANS is not being bound to an unsupported adapter.
  e. An "iANS BIND" command has been issued for each adapter and frame type in the team.

  NOTE: Novell's CONFIG command will not reflect the iANS BIND statements until after the COMMIT has been successfully issued.

• In NetWare, the following message may be displayed: "IPX received an incomplete packet from network 00001011:00A0C9AADFC3. 85 incomplete packets received." This message occurs when NetWare's internal routing mechanism mistakes the Intel iANS driver's probe packets for NetWare RIP packets. To prevent this message from displaying, make sure that IPXRTR.NLM is loaded on every NetWare server on the LAN. For more information on IPXRTR, see Novell's documentation or their Support web site.

Please read all restrictions and disclaimers.

Back to Contents Page     Back to Top