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• Applications
The SLB algorithm is most appropriate in home and small business environments where cost is a
concern, or with commodity switching equipment. SLB teaming works with unmanaged Layer 2
switches and is a cost-effective way of getting redundancy and link aggregation at the server.
Smart Load Balancing also supports teaming physical adapters with differing link capabilities. In
addition, SLB is recommended when switch fault tolerance with teaming is required.
• Configuration Recommendations
SLB supports connecting the teamed ports to hubs and switches if they are on the same broadcast
domain. It does not support connecting to a router or Layer 3 switches because the ports must be
on the same subnet.
4.5.2 Switch-Dependent
Generic Static Trunking
This mode supports a variety of environments where the adapter link partners are statically
configured to support a proprietary trunking mechanism. This mode could be used to support
Lucent's Open Trunk, Cisco's Fast EtherChannel (FEC), and Cisco's Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC). In
the static mode, as in generic link aggregation, the switch administrator needs to assign the ports to
the team, and this assignment cannot be altered by the BASP, as there is no exchange of the Link
Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) frame.
With this mode, all adapters in the team are configured to receive packets for the same MAC address.
Trunking operates on Layer 2 addresses and supports load balancing and failover for both inbound
and outbound traffic. The BASP driver determines the load-balancing scheme for outbound packets,
using Layer 4 protocols previously discussed, whereas the team link partner determines the load-
balancing scheme for inbound packets.
The attached switch must support the appropriate trunking scheme for this mode of operation. Both
the BASP and the switch continually monitor their ports for link loss. In the event of link loss on any
port, traffic is automatically diverted to other ports in the team.
• Network Communications
The following are the key attributes of Generic Static Trunking:
- Failover mechanism - Link loss detection
- Load Balancing Algorithm - Outbound traffic is balanced through Broadcom proprietary
mechanism based L4 flows. Inbound traffic is balanced according to a switch specific
mechanism.
- Outbound Load Balancing using MAC Address - No
- Outbound Load Balancing using IP Address - Yes
- Multivendor Teaming - Supported (must include at least one Broadcom Ethernet adapter as a
team member)
• Applications
Generic trunking works with switches that support Cisco Fast EtherChannel, Cisco Gigabit
EtherChannel, Extreme Networks Load Sharing and Bay Networks or IEEE 802.3ad Link
Aggregation static mode. Since load balancing is implemented on Layer 2 addresses, all higher
protocols such as IP, IPX, and NetBEUI are supported. Therefore, this is the recommended
teaming mode when the switch supports generic trunking modes over SLB.