This chapter provides the following information:
Functional Description Features Physical Description Broadcom Advanced Server Program Overview Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows .NET Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows 2000 Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows NT Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Novell NetWare Broadcom Advanced Server Control Suite Software for Linux Creating a Driver Disk
The Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Adapter connects a PCI or PCI-X (5701 only) compliant server or workstation to a Gigabit Ethernet network. This adapter incorporates a technology that transfers data at a maximum rate of one gigabit per second10 times the rate of Fast Ethernet adapters.
The Gigabit Ethernet Adapter targets the increased congestion experienced at the backbone and server in todays networks, and provides a future upgrade path for high-end workstations that require more bandwidth than Fast Ethernet can provide.
Figure 1. The Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (5700 shown)
Figure 2. The Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Adapter (5701 shown)
Included with your adapter are the following:
Inform your network supplier of any missing or damaged items. If you need to
return the adapter, you must pack it in the original (or equivalent) packing
material or the warranty will be voided.
Contents of Your Shipment
The following is a list of the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Adapter features for all supported operating systems:
Figure 2. Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Faceplate
The adapter has four LEDs, one for each port speed option (10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps), and one for Activity. The three port speed LEDs indicate active links, and the data LED indicates data transfer status. Once the adapter is installed and the cables are connected properly, the appropriate speed LED is lit and the data LED is on if data traffic is present.
Once the adapter hardware has been properly installed on
your system, the LEDs indicate the following adapter states:
Table 1. Gigabit Ethernet Port LED Status
LED | State | Description |
1000 | On | Good Gigabit Ethernet link. |
Off | No 1000 Mbps link; possible link at different speed, possible bad cable, bad connector, or configuration mismatch. | |
100 | On | Good 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet link. |
Off | No 100 Mbps link; possible link at different speed, possible bad cable, bad connector, or configuration mismatch. | |
10 | On | Good 10 Mbps Fast Ethernet link. |
Off | No 10 Mbps link; possible link at different speed, possible bad cable, bad connector, or configuration mismatch. | |
ACT | Blinking | Brief bursts of data detected on the port. |
On | Streams of data detected on the port. | |
Off | No data detected on the port. |
BASP is a Broadcom intermediate software
driver for Windows .NET, Windows 2000, Windows NT, NetWare, and Linux that provides
load-balancing, fault-tolerance, and VLAN features. These features are provided
by creating teams (virtual adapters) that consist of multiple NIC interfaces.
A team can consist of one to eight NIC interfaces and each interface can be
designated primary or standby*. All primary interfaces in a team will participate
in Load-balancing operations by sending and receiving a portion of the total
traffic. Standby interfaces will take over in the event that all primary interfaces
have lost their links. VLANs can be added to a team to allow multiple VLANs
with different VLAN IDs. A virtual adapter is created for each VLAN added. Load-balancing
and fault-tolerance features will work with any third party's NIC adapters.
VLANs only work with Broadcom NIC adapters.
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NOTE - *Standby can only be used in Smart Load-Balance mode (see below). |
Smart Load-Balance (SLB) is a protocol specific scheme and the level of support for IP, IPX, and other protocols are listed below.
Load-balancing
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Fault-tolerance
|
|
IP |
Yes
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Yes
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IPX |
Yes*
|
Yes**
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Other protocols |
No
|
Yes**
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*Only outbound load-balancing for IPX (on NetWare only).
**Only for Broadcom NICs.
Smart Load-balance (SLB) mode works with all Ethernet switches without configuring the switch ports to any special trunking mode. Only IP traffic will be load-balanced in both inbound and outbound directions. IPX traffic will be load-balanced in outbound direction only. Other protocol packets will be sent and received through one primary NIC only. Fault-tolerance for non-IP traffic is only supported using Broadcom NICs. The Generic Trunking mode requires the Ethernet switch to support some form of port trunking mode (e.g. Cisco's Gigabit EtherChannel or other switch vendor's link aggregation mode). This mode is protocol-independent and all traffic should be load-balanced and fault-tolerant.
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NOTE Broadcom recommends disabling the spanning tree protocol at the switch when using BASP. This will minimize the downtime due to spanning tree loop determination when failing over. |
The following options are supported under Windows NT. Refer to "Windows NT Driver Software" for additional information.
The following options are supported under Novell NetWare. Refer to "NetWare Driver Software," for additional information.
For optimum fault tolerance and recovery operations, BASP.LAN relies on the NIC drivers to generate NESL (NetWare Event Service Layer) events during link changes and other failure events. NESL is an optional feature in the ODI driver specification and not all drivers support it. For NESL events to propagate properly to BASP.LAN, ODINEB.NLM must be loaded before the NESL compliant ODI drivers.
Do the following to check if a NIC driver supports NESL events. Load BASP.LAN and create a team by binding the NIC adapter to the virtual slot (See instructions and examples below). In the "Virtual Adapter X Team Members" screen of the BASP.LAN's menu interface, the Link status of all bound NIC adapters are shown. Disconnect or connect the NIC adapter's cable and the link status shown on the screen should change immediately if the NIC driver supports NESL events.
The Broadcom Advanced Server Control Suite is a graphics user interface with the following functions. Refer to "Broadcom Advanced Server Control Suite " for additional information.
Broadcom's Gigabit Ethernet Adapter supports Linux (see "Linux Driver Software" for additional information).
Create driver disks using the Broadcom MakeDisk utility (setup.exe file). This utility will allow you to create disks with the following drivers:
To create a driver disk, perform the following:
If more than one driver was selected, the Setup Needs the Next Disk screen will appear again. Insert another diskette and click OK.