Multiple NICs utilized on NT4 Enterprise Server?

[Xtreme11]

Hi all and thanks for any help you can give...

I have 2 NICs (10/100 Ethernet Cards) in each of my NT4 Enterprise Servers. Currently they are both installed and setup with different IP addresses 120.4.6.10 and 120.4.6.11 respectively. I wanted to know the best and cheapest (free is best ) way to get them to load balance, or at least use both cards on each server. Right now all requests for each server go to only the first card, and I believe that utilizing 2 cards in each server would speed my network quite nicely.

Once again, thanks for the great advice of all you network pros,


X-treme1


BTW, yes to all of those who will suggest Win2k, but I can't afford it now, and this has to be legit.

 

[CTR]

First off, you are not going about this correctly. What you want to do is connect each NIC to a different network segment, or bond them together to form a single channel. I don't know if your NIC's or switch even support these features. What are the vendor/model specs for these devices? What does your network look like? Have you measured your network and server utilization at peak usage? Maybe you should just yank out the extra NIC and set the remaining one to 100/full duplex and be happy with that. Or hook up a protocol analyzer to your network and see if you can find anything extraneous to get rid of.

 

[Xtreme11]

Thanks, CTR, I'll try to explain what's going on.

I have a 3COM 3C905-TX and a D-Link DFE-530TX+ 10/100M PCI Network LAN Adapter w/Wake-On-LAN in both servers. I could use 2 3COM's or 2 D-Link's if need be, but I decided to use different models for ease of knowing which card was which. I can't use full duplex on this network unfortunately because we are using 3COM Super Stack II Dual Speed 500 Hubs that only operate at 10/100 half . We are basically running straight TCP/IP, so there is nothing errenous to get rid of that I can think of. The network is already pretty fast, however I am supporting over 100 users that open very large files ranging from Access DB's to Photo Art and Presentation Documents. The primary server (PDC) is a 1Ghz TB with 512MB PC133 and 3 40GB WD 400BB's (7200RPM/100UDMA) in RAID 0. I think if I could put two cards to work, I could increase thouroughput by a good amount seeing how I am currently limited by half duplex on a single NIC right now.

I have read about randomizing which adapter gets chosen for traffic and also have looked at Microsoft's Windows NT Load Balancing Services for NT4, but want to know if the stuff works before I install it on either server. Thanks.

 

[CTR]

Get a switch. Or two.
[edit: Because the hubs are most likely holding you back]

 

[Xtreme11]

Yeah, I'd love to, but we just don't have any money in our IT budget for that kind of thing... Do you know any good places to get advice on load balancing or segmenting??? Anandtech seems to be a little dry today. Thanks

 

[spidey07]

you'll never be able to achieve any kind of load balancing with hubs strictly because they are hubs. Quite frankly you are hurting your performance right now by operating with two nics on a shared media hub.

get some switches and a gigabit NIC for the server and you'll be all set. If you don't wanna do gigethernet then buy the intel server nics...you can PROPERLY bond two - four network interfaces to get 200-400 Mbs full duplex. But with the prices of gigE so cheap, i'd go with that.

cheers!
spidey

where's RUSSto remind me what year it is?

<edit> Don't have the money for this kind of thing? we're talking about $2000 max. that is a bargain considering you'll probably increase your network peformance at least 10 fold

 

[Xtreme11]

Isn't there a good way to direct traffic to seperate NIC's. Like for internet stuff I would have it go to the secondary adapter, and for file access I could have it go to the primary adapter? I know it can be done, I just don't know what the best way to do it is....

 

[CTR]

But if both NIC's are accessing the same hub, you won't see any performance gain. Why bother?

 

[Garion]

A decent upgrade doesn't have to be incredibly expensive - For example, buy.com has a Linksys 8-port 10/100 switch with a single gigabit port AND a PCI gigabit card for like $250. Get this, throw your server on gig, uplink each of the hubs into one of the 10/100 ports and watch your network performance double (or more).

- G

 

[Xtreme11]

<< But if both NIC's are accessing the same hub, you won't see any performance gain. Why bother? >>



Because I have 4 Hubs, and can have each card go to a different one!!!

 

[spidey07]

Super-duper ultra inexpensive way to get some better performance, although highly discouraged.

four hubs right? Use four 10/100 NICs in the server and assign different IP networks to each NIC.

NIC1=192.168.1.10/255.255.255.0
NIC1=192.168.2.10/255.255.255.0
NIC1=192.168.3.10/255.255.255.0
NIC1=192.168.4.10/255.255.255.0

Each NIC plugs into a separate hub. MAKE SURE THE HUBS HAVE NO CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THEM! Setup 4 DHCP scopes on a server to hand out addresses. What you are doing here is trying to contain the collision domains by separating each ethernet segment. This will indeed improve your network performance. Hope your PROC doesn't get killed by interrupts.

hope this helps.

with 100 people you really need to be getting a switch

 

[ScottMac]

If those four hubs are connected together, it's logically the same as having one big hub. There's no gain.

FWIW / .02


Scott

 

[CTR]

Heh, good one Spidey. I used to do that with Netware servers when the client wouldn't spring for switches. It actually ran pretty good. I had one NW4.11 server with 5 NIC's in it.

 

[Xtreme11]

Thanks Spidey, you have been most helpful. I really wouldLoveto get switches here, but our budget is tied up pretty bad.

Will NT automatically use both cards (or all 4 if I follow your example) to delagate out DHCP to my users and therefore utilize all the cards??? That's the root of my problem, I want to actually USE both cards and be able to do different operations on each card. Any other help/ideas?

Also, has anyone ever used Windows NT Load Balancing Services for NT4???

 

[CTR]

Think about it: DHCP is a broadcast protocol, so the NIC connected to the segement where the DHCP request originates will send the DHCP reply. Since all of the TCP/IP traffic to/from that host will be handled by the server's NIC connected to that segment, this is a moot point.

In essence you are turning your NT server into a LAN router. If you have multiple servers doing this, you will need to configure a routing protocol or configure static routes on the servers to get traffic from one subnet to a subnet off the other server.

 

[spidey07]

anytime pal.

but please forget about your notions of actually load balancing with hubs CTR and ScottMac are shootin you straight.

My solution is an attemt to distribute the load, not balance it...there is a big difference. To answer your other DHCP questions and what not i'll go a little deeper...

----------from previous post--------------
NIC1=192.168.1.10/255.255.255.0
NIC1=192.168.2.10/255.255.255.0
NIC1=192.168.3.10/255.255.255.0
NIC1=192.168.4.10/255.255.255.0

Each NIC plugs into a separate hub. MAKE SURE THE HUBS HAVE NO CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THEM! Setup 4 DHCP scopes on a server to hand out addresses. What you are doing here is trying to contain the collision domains by separating each ethernet segment. This will indeed improve your network performance. Hope your PROC doesn't get killed by interrupts.
-----------------------------------------
forgot to add that you'll need to enable IP routing on the NT servers...it won't run a routing protocol but this will enable the NT box to forward froms from one subnet to another. When you create your 4 different DHCP scopes they'll look like this:
scope = scope1-192.168.1.0
address range = 192.168.1.15-250
default router = 192.168.1.10
all the other goodies you need
Create three other scopes that look almost identical except the addresses will change.

When the NT server receives a DHCP-request it is smart enough (MS, go figure) to realize that the req came in on the nic on the 192.168.x.0 segment and handout the appropriate address. So your addressing will be fine.

Next you'll have to worry about the affect routing has on MS browsing. I'd suggest setting up WINS on both servers, unless the only communication you have is client to server in which case you could let them broadcast. NO WAIT, that is still a bad idea, you have hubs. Set up wins.

good luck!
but please remember, this is a very sloppy solution to a very simple problem. It can be quite difficult to troubleshoot problems with this kind of setup, whenever you ask a NT server to route you're asking for trouble. You tellin me you can afford 100 PCs at roughly 1000 each but can't spring for the most important part of any business that being communications?

oh well, hope this helps

 

[spidey07]

CTRs right about this being a very old trick.

we used to do this before switches were invented back in 1990-1994