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NetXtreme II User Guide
January 2010
Broadcom Corporation
Page 18 Executive Summary Document ENGSRVT52-CDUM100-R
team must use a unique MAC address to be IEEE compliant. It is important to note that ARP cache entries are not learned
from received frames, but only from ARP requests and ARP replies.
Description of Teaming Types
• Smart Load Balancing and Failover
• Generic Trunking
• Link Aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad LACP)
• SLB (Auto-Fallback Disable)
There are three methods for classifying the supported teaming types:
• One is based on whether the switch port configuration must also match the adapter teaming type.
• The second is based on the functionality of the team, whether it supports load balancing and failover or just failover.
• The third is based on whether the Link Aggregation Control Protocol is used or not.
Table 2 shows a summary of the teaming types and their classification.
Smart Load Balancing and Failover
The Smart Load Balancing™ and Failover type of team provides both load balancing and failover when configured for load
balancing, and only failover when configured for fault tolerance. This type of team works with any Ethernet switch and
requires no trunking configuration on the switch. The team advertises multiple MAC addresses and one or more IP
addresses (when using secondary IP addresses). The team MAC address is selected from the list of load balance members.
When the system receives an ARP request, the software-networking stack will always send an ARP Reply with the team
MAC address. To begin the load balancing process, the teaming driver will modify this ARP Reply by changing the source
MAC address to match one of the physical adapters.
Table 2: Available Teaming Types
Teaming Type
Switch-Dependent
(Switch must support
specific type of team)
Link Aggregation
Control Protocol
Support Required on
the Switch
Load Balancing Failover
Smart Load Balancing
and Failover (with two
to eight load balance
team members)
SLB (Auto-Fallback
Disable)
Link Aggregation
(802.3ad)
Generic Trunking
(FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-
Draft Static