The standard for switch port bonding is 802.3ad. Cisco calls it etherchannel, so if you look for that you're good. I doubt you'll have any switch/nic issues. The nic teaming software creates a virtual NIC that uses both physical ones. The setup on the switch just says to create a virtual switchport that uses the two physical ones.
Intel and Broadcom both have teaming capabilities for their server nics, not sure about software for the workstation ones. Good luck finding a decent nic that isn't one of those brands anymore. ;) -----Original Message----- From: Oliver Marshall [mailto:oliver.marsh...@g2support.com] Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 10:35 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Net port bonding Hmmmm. Do you know if there is a 'standard' as such for the teaming on the switch so that we can be sure to get new switches that will work nicely with the new nics in the workstations ? I guess an obvious (you'd think) solution would be to get nics and switches from the same manufacturer, but I guess that means nothing in the world of outsourcing. Olly -- G2 Support Network Support : Online Backups : Server Management www.g2support.com -----Original Message----- From: Damien Solodow [mailto:damien.solo...@ibcschools.edu] Sent: 17 April 2009 15:31 To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Net port bonding Aside from the obvious that the workstation will need multiple NICs and switch ports, make sure the NICs have a teaming capable driver/software. You usually won't see this except on server nics though. In general, teaming will allow bonding on outbound traffic without needing anything to happen on the switch. If you want inbound traffic bonding, you'll need to set that up on the switch as well. -----Original Message----- From: Oliver Marshall [mailto:oliver.marsh...@g2support.com] Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 10:27 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Net port bonding Hi chaps, We have a client whose workers do mainly cad based rendering and shovel massive files around the network (TB files aren't uncommon). Certain workers need more network throughput than their aging gigabit network can offer them. The options appear to be fibre, though for workstations, and just a handful, this seems to involved a large setup cost and may be overkill, and also bonding of ports. I like the last idea as it would allow certain workstations to bond multiple GB network ports together to get more throughput. Has anyone else done anything similar to this on the workstation end? Any words of wisdom ? Olly ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
