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82574L and 82579LM Link Aggregation

TTuck2
Beginner
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I have a very noob question on trying to get these two NIC's to team together for link aggregation.

I just set up a Synology DS713+ NAS at home and purchased a Cisco SG 200-08 switch in order to use the link aggregation that the

Synology unit offers. When I try to Team these two connections on my HP Z820 computer I get an error message saying that "The devices included in this team do not support the team type" I can select Adaptive Load Balancing but not the IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation.

I was hoping to benefit from being able to use both of these ethernet ports for better transfer speeds with my NAS.

Can anyone point out what I might be doing wrong?

If it is not possible to LAG these two together, what do I need to do? Buy a third card and link two different ethernet ports together?

If this is the case which one of my existing NIC's do I use with the new one?

Which new one would you recommend?

Thanks for any input.

Toby

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Mark_H_Intel
Employee
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Hi Toby,

You can't configure a LInk Aggregation team on a network port that has http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/intel-active-management-technology.html Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT). So you will need an add-in card to configure that type of team.

Before you buy another card to setup the team, you might want to take a look at this presentation: http://www.ieee802.org/3/hssg/public/apr07/frazier_01_0407.pdf http://www.ieee802.org/3/hssg/public/apr07/frazier_01_0407.pdf for a quick explanation of what to expect from link aggregation. Depending on the communication you are doing, you might not see any any performance gains.

If you decide to add one port, the http://ark.intel.com/products/50395/Intel-Gigabit-CT-Desktop-Adapter Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter will work and is inexpensive.

If you want to add in two ports, I would look at the http://ark.intel.com/products/59062/Intel-Ethernet-Server-Adapter-I350-T2 Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2.

I hope this helps.

Mark

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Mark_H_Intel
Employee
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Hi Toby,

You can't configure a LInk Aggregation team on a network port that has http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/intel-active-management-technology.html Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT). So you will need an add-in card to configure that type of team.

Before you buy another card to setup the team, you might want to take a look at this presentation: http://www.ieee802.org/3/hssg/public/apr07/frazier_01_0407.pdf http://www.ieee802.org/3/hssg/public/apr07/frazier_01_0407.pdf for a quick explanation of what to expect from link aggregation. Depending on the communication you are doing, you might not see any any performance gains.

If you decide to add one port, the http://ark.intel.com/products/50395/Intel-Gigabit-CT-Desktop-Adapter Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter will work and is inexpensive.

If you want to add in two ports, I would look at the http://ark.intel.com/products/59062/Intel-Ethernet-Server-Adapter-I350-T2 Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2.

I hope this helps.

Mark

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TTuck2
Beginner
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Mark,

Thanks for the reply and suggestions.

According to the Synology site and the DS713+, link aggregation is a benefit for what I would be doing but thanks for pointing that out.

Is there any way to remove the AMT from the port or is it just built in?

I may just give the CT a try and see if I can get a link aggregation going.

Thanks,

Toby

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Mark_H_Intel
Employee
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Dell built in Intel AMT and https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/vpro/vpro-technology-general.html Intel® vPro™ Technology in that computer model. I have not had any experience with these technologies. You could check the BIOS to see if there is an option to disable the technologies. I don't know if that is possible or not.

I am also not sure if disabling those technologies will allow you to team the port or not, but you won't lose anything by trying. You might still have to install the add-in adapter.

Mark

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TTuck2
Beginner
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Mark,

Thanks for all the info and advice.

I ended up with the CT card. I was able to create a team

with the two network ports. I created a Link aggregation.

I have been having issues with my system since the team creation.

At random times my system will slow to a crawl.

Literally my mouse stutters across the screen. Can't seem to determine

what is causing the system lag. I have deactivated the team to see if this is the problem and it seems to go away so far.

Any idea what the issue could be? Any settings I can check/change?

I'm on an HP Z820 running Windows 7 64 Bit.

Thanks,

Toby

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Mark_H_Intel
Employee
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Hi Toby,

 

Sorry I took so long to reply here. I do try to jump in whenever I get a chance, but sometimes I get way behind.

I don't remember hearing about anything like this before. So I don't know exactly what might fix it. Here are a couple of ideas about things to do that might help narrow down the source of the slow down.

I looked at the block diagram of your motherboard on page 34 of the manual at

 

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03678225/c03678225.pdf http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03678225/c03678225.pdf. I see that the built-in network connections and the PCIe2 slot all go through the PCH to CPU 0. The other PCIe slots go directly to either CPU 0 or CPU 1. I don't know which slot you used to plug in the new NIC. You might want to try a slot with a different path to see if that makes a difference.

Also, you might want to check for BIOS and other updates for your system. I have not looked to see what updates might be available, but there might be a fix in one of the updates.

Another thing that you could try is to create a team with only one port. I know that such a team does not gain you any of the benefits of a team. What I am thinking is that if you created a team that only used the new NIC, you could see if the slowdowns still occur when using that one port team. If the slowdowns still occur, you could try using the new port without putting it in a team to see if you still have problems. That way you can narrow things down to the new NIC or the teaming.

Or maybe the problem is related to teaming those two ports in particular. I don't know any good reason why this should not work.

The chances that there is a bug in the teaming software causing the slow down is extremely low, especially since there doesn't seem to be a bunch of similar slow down reports related to teams. I'm leaning toward something related to the combination of hardware or the slot used, but I am only guessing.

You could check with HP's support or in one of their communities to see if HP or any other workstation users might have any insights.

I noticed in another thread that you asked about the I350-T2. That NIC should work great for what you are trying to do, but then I thought that the combination you are trying now would work too. The I350-T2 would give you a much newer generation of Ethernet controller, and both ports would be exactly alike. So if you can't get the current combo to work, that might be the way to go.

Mark H

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TTuck2
Beginner
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Mark,

No worries at all. I appreciate your help. I think I was able to narrow down my problem with the system slowdown. Ended up being a stray process that happened to pop up at the same time as the teaming. Took forever to find it. Just seemed like a coincidence.

I ended up teaming my 82574L on-board NIC with the CT add-on NIC. I created a LAG team with the default settings.

All seemed to work well except I am seeing a strange problem that maybe you can help with or explain.

Like I said, I created the team with the above ports. When I check the status of the Team it only shows a 1 Gbps speed. I then check the properties of the team and notice that one of my ports is in Standby and one is Active.

I have even tried to Force one port as Master and Force one as Slave which didn't work. I then tried to set the CT card as primary in the team and the other as secondary but I still can't get the CT card out of Standby.

If I disable then enable the team it will pop up as 2 Gbps with both ports active.

What am I doing wrong? Could this be a setting with my switch? I am using the Cisco SG200-08 switch.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

Toby

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Mark_H_Intel
Employee
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Hi Toby,

Maybe the problem is a refresh or display issue. I wonder if you close the properties of any deivces and the team and then come back to look, if both ports show active.When you disable and enable the team, then the status would get updated. Can you tell anything from the swich end about whether both links are enabled?

Mark H

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TTuck2
Beginner
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Mark,

All seems fine now. I went through and just checked my settings from the switch all the way through my teamed nic's. I am now showing two active with 2 Gbps speed.

Hope this sticks.

Thanks for all your help.

Toby

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