Users Guide

Table Of Contents
2–Configuring Teaming in Windows Server
Load Balancing and Fault Tolerance
Doc No. BC0054508-00 Rev. R
January 21, 2021 Page 10 Copyright © 2021 Marvell
Link Aggregation (802.3ad)
The Link Aggregation mode supports link aggregation and conforms to the IEEE
802.3ad (LACP) specification. Configuration software allows you to dynamically
configure the adapters that you want to participate in a specific team. If the link
partner is not correctly configured for 802.3ad link configuration, errors are
detected and noted. With this mode, all adapters in the team are configured to
receive packets for the same MAC address. The team link partner determines the
load-balancing scheme for inbound packets. In this mode, at least one of the link
partners must be in active mode.
Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static
The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static type of team is very similar
to the Link Aggregation (802.3ad) type of team in that all adapters in the team are
configured to receive packets for the same MAC address. The Generic Trunking
(FEC/GEC)/802.3ad-Draft Static) type of team, however, does not provide LACP
or marker protocol support. This team type supports a variety of environments in
which the adapter link partners are statically configured to support a proprietary
trunking mechanism. For instance, this type of team could be used to support
Lucent
®
OpenTrunk™ or Cisco
®
Fast EtherChannel (FEC). Basically, the Generic
Trunking team type is a light version of the Link Aggregation (802.3ad) team type.
This approach is much simpler because it does contain a formalized link
aggregation control protocol (LACP). As with the other types of teams, the
creation of teams and the allocation of physical adapters to various teams is done
statically through user configuration software.
The Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC/802.3ad-Draft Static) type of team supports load
balancing and failover for both outbound and inbound traffic.
The static and dynamic Link Aggregation (switch dependent) team type is
not supported on ports with NIC partitioning (NPAR) mode enabled or
iSCSI-offload enabled. Some switches support FCoE-offload in dynamic
LACP teaming mode. Consult your switch documentation for more
information.
Generic Trunking (FEC/GEC/802.3ad Draft Static) team type is not
supported for ports with NPAR mode or FCoE-Offload or iSCSI-Offload
enabled.