MVUG Blog

Broadcom NIC Teaming and Hyper-V

I have been working with Hyper-V since November 2007 and one issue that is still unresolved, even now, is the issue of NIC Teaming.

I want to start off by pointing out upfront that NIC Teaming is NOT supported by Microsoft in either a virtual of a physical environment. It is typically supported by the manufacturer, in this case Broadcom, and is also supported by the OEM.

I am not personally aware of the support status from an OEM perspective, and recommend that before anyone attempts to implement NIC Teaming, in combination with Hyper-V that they talk to their OEM first, to validate the support status.

So why am I blogging about Broadcom NIC Teaming and Hyper-V? Well Broadcom have added support for NIC Teaming with Broadcom’s BASP6 v1.2.10 release.

Broadcom Advanced Server Program (BASP) is the Broadcom teaming software for Windows. BASP runs within the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 3 (BACS).

BAPS supports four types of teams for layer 2 teaming:

·         Smart Load Balancing and Failover

·         Link Aggregation (802.3AD)

·         Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3AD-Draft Static

·         Smart Load Balancing (Auto-Failback Disable)

Smart Load Balance and Failover
In this type of team, a standby member handles the traffic if all of the load balance members fail (a failover event). All load balance members have to fail before the standby member takes over. When one or more of the load balance members is restored (fallback), the restored team member(s) resumes the handling of the traffic.

Link Aggregation (802.3AD)
In this type of team, you can dynamically configure the network adapters that have been selected to participate in a given team. All adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. The outbound load balancing scheme is determined by the BASP driver. The link partner of the team determines the load balancing scheme for inbound packets. In this mode, at least one of the link partners must be in active mode.

Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3AD-Draft Static
This type of team is very similar to the link aggregation type, in that all adapters in the team must be configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. This mode does not provide link aggregation control protocol (LACP) or marker protocol support. This mode supports a variety of environments where the link partners are statically configured to support a proprietary trunking mechanism. Trunking supports load balancing and failover for both outbound and inbound traffic.

SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)
This team is identical to Smart Load Balance and Failover, with the following exception: when the standby member is active, if a primary member comes back online, the team continues using the standby member rather than switching back to the primary member. This type of team is supported only for situations in which the network cable is disconnected and reconnected to the network adapter. It is not supported for situations in which the adapter is removed/installed through Device Manager or Hot-Plug PCI. If any primary adapter assigned to a team is disabled, the team functions as a Smart Load Balancing and Failover type of team in which auto-fallback occurs.

What Teamed Network Adapters does Broadcom support with Hyper-V? Broad support the following team types:

·         Smart Load Balancing and Failover (configured only for one primary and one standby adapter)

·         Link Aggregation (802.3AD)

·         Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3AD-Draft Static