PowerEdge: Common Network Partition and Teaming Mode mistake that result in unexpected issues

Summary: What is a common Network Partition and Teaming Mode mistake that may result in unexpected network issues.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

Q1: What is a common Network Partition and Team Mode configuration mistake that may cause unexpected network issues?
Q2: Is it supported by Dell EMC?
 

 

Cause

Regardless of the Operating System, Dell Technologies Engineering DOES NOT support an NPAR configuration where a team or virtual switch (simple or distributed) or logical network switch (N-VDS) contains more than one partition from the same physical port.

Resolution

Answers:
With Dell EMC BCM 578xx CNA adapters, for example, enabling NPAR or Network Partitioning allows for eight partitions (logical NICs) that may be presented to the Host (Server) Operating System. With a four-port adapter, each physical port contains two partitions (logical NICs) that combined share the physical capabilities of that single port. With a two-port adapter, each physical port contains four partitions (logical NICs) that combined share the physical capabilities of that single port.

A common misconception is that these eight partitions are equivalent to eight physical ports which is not the case. Care must be taken when configuring these partitions so as not to overload a single physical port and not to combine multiple partitions from the same physical port into the same team or virtual switch.

Regardless of the Operating System, Dell EMC Engineering DOES NOT support an NPAR configuration where a team or virtual switch (simple or distributed) or logical network switch (N-VDS) contains more than one partition from the same physical port. 

Not only are multiple partitions from the same physical port not supported in a team or virtual switch, that configuration does not provide any physical redundancy, adds additional driver stack overhead, adds complexity, and may result in various unexpected network issues. These unexpected issues could be things like:

  • Performance issues
  • Port flapping or network disconnects
  • NetQ or Mac filter errors in the OS logs
  • With virtualization Operating Systems, you may encounter errors attempting to move virtual machines from one host to a second.
  • Replication of ingress traffic across partitions from the same physical port
Note: This may not be a complete list of unexpected network issues. As, Dell EMC does not test unsupported configurations that include multiple partitions from the same physical port.

 

Now the documentation includes a chapter about Feature Constraints that lists what is supported or not on some features:
https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER07785443M/1/QLogic_QC_E4_Manual_External_End_User_35.30.00.09.zip

From UsersGuide_Dell_41000_Series_Adapters_AH0054602-00Z.pdf:  page 358

This article is updated as new information becomes available.

Affected Products

Emulex Family of Adapters, Microsoft Windows Server 2016, Microsoft Windows Server 2019, Microsoft Windows Server 2022, QLogic Family of Adapters, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 9 , Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 8, VMware ESXi 6.7.X, VMware ESXi 7.x, VMware ESXi 8.x ...

Products

PowerEdge C6420, PowerEdge C6520, PowerEdge C6525, PowerEdge C6615, PowerEdge C6620, PowerEdge FC640, PowerEdge M640, PowerEdge M640 (for PE VRTX), PowerEdge MX740C, PowerEdge MX750c, PowerEdge MX760c, PowerEdge MX840C, PowerEdge R240, PowerEdge R250 , PowerEdge R260, PowerEdge R340, PowerEdge R350, PowerEdge R360, PowerEdge R440, PowerEdge R450, PowerEdge R540, PowerEdge R550, PowerEdge R640, PowerEdge R6415, PowerEdge R650, PowerEdge R650xs, PowerEdge R6515, PowerEdge R6525, PowerEdge R660, PowerEdge R660xs, PowerEdge R6615, PowerEdge R6625, PowerEdge R740, PowerEdge R740XD, PowerEdge R740XD2, PowerEdge R7415, PowerEdge R7425, PowerEdge R750, PowerEdge R750XA, PowerEdge R750xs, PowerEdge R7515, PowerEdge R7525, PowerEdge R760, PowerEdge R760XA, PowerEdge R760xd2, PowerEdge R760xs, PowerEdge R7615, PowerEdge R7625, PowerEdge R840, PowerEdge R860, PowerEdge R940, PowerEdge R940xa, PowerEdge R960, PowerEdge T140, PowerEdge T150, PowerEdge T160, PowerEdge T340, PowerEdge T350, PowerEdge T360, PowerEdge T440, PowerEdge T550, PowerEdge T560, PowerEdge T640 ...
Article Properties
Article Number: 000179202
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 11 Dec 2024
Version:  7
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