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38 5 Features
Link aggregation provides the following important benefits:
• Higher link availability
• Increased link capacity
• Improvements are obtained using existing hardware (no upgrading to higher-capacity link tech-
nology is necessary)
Demanding applications running in high-performance environments like servers in enterprises, web
servers, and intranet servers gain particularly from the high-bandwidth and duplex capabilities of link
aggregation.
All SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet adapters support link aggregation according to the IEEE standard
802.3ad. At the moment, SysKonnect provides a link aggregation driver for Windows 2000 and
Windows XP. The drivers for Linux are able to support link aggregation according to the
IEEE standard 802.3ad by installing third party open source modules. For details, refer to the corre-
sponding readme file. In the future, link aggregation support according to IEEE 802.3ad will be im-
plemented in SysKonnect drivers for other operating systems such as Linux, Sun Solaris, HP-UX,
and IBM AIX. For driver updates, refer to our web site:
http://www.syskonnect.com
For more information on link aggregation, refer to the white paper “Link Aggregation according to
IEEE 802.3ad”, which can be found on the SysKonnect installation CD-ROM and on our web site.
Redundant Switch Failover
Beyond the features required for link aggregation in the IEEE 802.3ad standard, SysKonnect drivers
support an additional failover feature, the so-called Redundant Switch Failover (RSF). If a switch
fails completely, RSF can move the link to a different switch which then takes over the traffic.
At the moment, this feature is implemented in the driver package for Windows 2000 and
Windows XP but will be available for other operating systems in the future. The standard requires
that all links of a link aggregation group (team) are connected to the same partner (usually a switch
supporting 802.3ad). With SysKonnect’s link aggregation driver, one team (group of logical links)
can comprise several aggregators (sub-group beneath team level). If a team has several aggrega-
tors, which are connected to separate switches, the failover feature is utilized. Data is transferred via
one aggregator, and is, if this aggregator fails, automatically switched over to another aggregator in
the same team.
For more information on RSF, refer to the white paper “Link Aggregation according to IEEE
802.3ad”, which can be found on the SysKonnect installation CD-ROM and on our web site.
PCI Hot Plug
As a member of the PCI Special Interest Group, SysKonnect participated in the standardization of
the insertion and removal of PCI computer cards during normal server operation. Like all SysKon-
nect PCI cards, the Gigabit Ethernet adapters comply with the Hot Plug PCI standard. This technol-
ogy increases the availability of the server(s) used.
Hot Plug enables the replacement of failed devices in a running system.