IBM Support

Ethernet controller failover (teaming) pairs - Servers and IntelliStation

Troubleshooting


Problem

Ethernet controller fail-over (teaming) pairs for Servers and IntelliStation.

Resolving The Problem

Compatibility between Ethernet cards and "teaming"

There are some limitations on having IBM Ethernet chipsets work together as "fail-over pairs" or "teaming pairs".

Fail-over (AFT) is having one or more network adapters on standby in case a primary network adapter fails. The network traffic will "fail-over" to the waiting adapter so that no traffic is dropped.

Teaming is similar to "fail-over" in that it provides redundancy, but teamed adapters are also "working" adapters, actively sending or receiving traffic. They are not just on standby.

Fail-over/Teaming can be achieved between the following IBM adapters:
  • AMD chipset (onboard) and AMD Fault-tolerant PCI adapter (08L3341, withdrawn)
  • AMD chipset (onboard) and 3Com Etherlink Server adapter (09N9901)
  • Intel chipset (onboard) and Intel PCI adapter (e.g. Ethernet Adapter 2 (34L1501, withdrawn), Ethernet Server Adapter (06P3601))
  • Intel chipset (onboard) and 3Com Etherlink Server adapter (09N9901)
  • Intel chipset (onboard) and Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (19K4401 (copper)
    Note: Teaming runs at lowest common speed, i.e. 100Mb. Fibre SX adapter can only do AFT.
  • Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter and Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter
    Note: Copper will work with fibre, provided they're on the same subnet and a conversion switch is used for fibre to copper signaling.

Note: Not all IBM ServerProven adapters are listed in the examples above.

Please refer to the "Teaming" section for detailed instructions on setup of these adapters.

Onboard (built-in) Ethernet controllers on IBM servers

IBM Netfinity and IBM eserver xSeries servers use two general chipsets for onboard (built-in) Ethernet controllers. One is AMD (also called a "Fault Tolerant" adapter) and the other is Intel. Here is a list of which servers come with what chipset:

AMD:

  • IBM eServer xSeries 230, 240, 250, 340, 350
  • IBM Netfinity 3500-M10, 5000, 5100, 5500, 5500-M10/M20, 5600, 6000R, 7100, 7600

Intel:

  • IBM eServer xSeries 130, 135, 200, 220, 232, 300, 330, 342, 360, 380
  • IBM Netfinity 1000, 3000, 3500, 4000R

 

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

IntelliStation Pro:All operating systems listed

System x:All operating systems listed

Older System x:Operating system independent / None

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Document Information

Modified date:
23 January 2019

UID

ibm1MIGR-40920