Powerconnect 2848 LAG and Broadcom Link Aggregation

You are correct, it only supports static LAG.

The following are the guidelines for configuring LAGs:

• Finish configuring the link aggregation group before you connect the corresponding network cables between switches.

• All ports in the same LAG do not need to be the same media type (i.e., twisted-pair vs. fiber), as long the ports are the same speed.

• The ports on both ends of the LAG must be configured the same (VLAN, speed, duplex mode, flow control, and CoS settings) initially.

On the switch side of things its pretty easy to configure the LAG.

Configuring a Port to a LAG

1 Open the LAG Membership page.

2 In the LAG row (the second row), toggle the button to a specific number to aggregate to or remove the

port from that LAG number.

3 Click Apply Changes.

The port is added to the LAG, and the device is updated.

What model server and NIC is being used. I can help look some info up on the different settings for the LAG.

Thanks for the extra info. Here is a great video on creating a Team, it is using BACS 3, but should be the same way in BACS 4.

I would create the LAG this way using the Smart load balancing option. Then once the LAG is created double check the port settings to make sure the speed and duplex are the same as the 2848 port settings are.

You can accomplish through these steps.

1. In Microsoft Windows, right-click the Network Adapter in Network Connections and click Properties.

2. Click the Configure button and then the General tab.

3. Set the speed to 10 Mb Full, 10 Mb Half, 100 Mb Full, 100 Mb Half(which ever is the same as the switch settings.)

The Broadcom NIC does not have the option to manually set the switch to 1000Mb/s, so for this setting you will need to use Auto.

On the switch you will need to set the LAG to access mode for the VLAN you want the server to be in. If the server has a virtual environment with a virtual switch hadling multiple VLANs, then we may need to set things to Trunk mode.

Keep us updated.

The model of the server is a Dell PowerEdge T410 and the NIC being used is a Broadcom BCM5716c NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBD Client)

On the Server:

I configured the NIC on the server with Smart Load Balancing and Failover and assigned that NIC a static IP. I set it up on vlan 1, untagged.

On the Switch:

I configured LAG via the LAG membership page. I did not make any other configurations because all ports are on vlan 1 and by default the lag is untagged. I could not find that feature to set the LAG to access mode.

Problem:

I can access the internet and shared drives from the server. I cannot not RDP into it from another machine or access a machine from the server. I cannot even ping the server from my workstation.

I have the switch connected to other unmanaged switches on my network. I don't know if that might make a difference.

Sounds like we are getting closer, do you have a DHCP server on the network? Or does everything have a static IP address? From the server are you able to ping the 2848, or any workstation connected directly to the 2848?

Do we receive any errors when trying to RDP to the server? Or any Events being logged on the server when trying to RDP to it? Is the server and workstation on the subnet, or different?

I can rdp into the workstation on the 2848 switch from another switch, but i cannot rdp into the server.

Yes I do have a DHCP Server on the network. From the server I am not able to ping the 2848. I am not able to ping any workstation on that same switch. The server and workstation are on the same subnet. There was nothing of note on the Event Viewer of the server regarding networking or rdp connections.

I restarted the server and now I can rdp into it, but i lost internet connection and connection to my shared drives. I have a yellow triangle with a question mark in it on top of the notification sign of the network connectivity icon on the desktop.

Ok, I think we have two options here, and either one should work.

1. Leave the Static LAG on the switch and on the Team change it from smart load balancing to generic trunk.

2. Leave the Broadcom team on smart load balancing and then delete the 2848 LAG. Plug the server's teamed ports into the default configured ports on the 2848.

Keep us updated.