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Introduction: Broadcom NetXtreme 57XX User Guide

Functional Description
Features
Physical Description
Broadcom Advanced Server Program Overview
Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows Server 2003
Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows 2000
Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows NT
Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 2
Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Novell NetWare
Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Linux
Creating a Driver Disk


Functional Description

The Gigabit Ethernet Adapter targets the increased congestion experienced at the backbone and server in today's networks, and provides a future upgrade path for high-end workstations that require more bandwidth than Fast Ethernet can provide.

The Broadcom NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet Adapter connects a PCI or PCI-X (BCM5701, BCM5702, BCM5703, BCM5704) compliant server or workstation to a Gigabit Ethernet network. This adapter incorporates a technology that transfers data at a maximum rate of 1 Gbps-10 times the rate of Fast Ethernet adapters.

The BCM5700, BCM5701, BCM5702, BCM5703, and BCM5704 base adapters utilize twisted-pair media. At 100 or 1000 Mbps, the adapter uses 4-pair Category 5 cabling and Category 3 when they are running at 10 Mbps.

The BCM5701S or BCM5703S base adapters utilize fiber media. These adapters use fiber optic cabling and connector that meets 62.5/125um or 50/125um multimode specifications. These adapters operates at 1000 Mbps full-duplex mode only.

The BCM5704 base adapters utilize twisted-pair media. At 100 or 1000 Mbps, the adapter uses 4-pair Category 5 cabling and Category 3 when they are running at 10 Mbps.

Contents of Your Shipment

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.

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Features

The following is a list of the Broadcom NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet Adapter features for all supported operating systems:

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Physical Description

The faceplate on the 10/100/1000BASE-T adapter provides an RJ-45 connector for connecting the adapter to another network device.

  Figure 1. Broadcom NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Faceplate

The adapter faceplate 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 ACT LED indicates data transfer status. After the adapter is installed and the cables are connected properly, the appropriate speed LED is lit and the ACT LED is on if data traffic is present.

After 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.

The faceplate on the BCM5701/BCM5703S adapters provides two fiber optic connectors for attaching the adapter to a compatible link partner.

  Figure 2. Broadcom 1000-SX Adapter Faceplate

The BCM5701S/BCM5703S adapters have four LEDs, one for Link status, and one for Activity (LED1 and LED2 and not used). After the adapter is installed and the cables are connected properly, the Link LED is lit and the ACT LED will blink if data traffic is present.

After the adapter hardware has been properly installed on your system, the LEDs indicate the following adapter states:

Table 2. Fiber Optic Port LED Status
LED State Description
Link On Valid fiber link.
Off No fiber link.
ACT Blinking Data traffic between the card and the switch.
Off No data traffic.
LED1 N/A Not Used.
LED2 N/A Not Used.

The faceplate on the BCM5704 adapter provides two RJ-45 connectors for connecting the adapter to other networking devices.

  Figure 3. Broadcom NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Faceplate (BCM5704)

The adapter has two LEDs, one for each Activity (ACT and LINK). The ACT LED indicates data transfer status. After the adapter is installed and the cables are connected properly, the appropriate speed LED is lit and the ACT LED is on if data traffic is present. The LINK LED indicates the port speed option (10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps) for ports 1 and 2.

After the adapter hardware has been properly installed on your system, the LEDs indicate the following adapter states:

Table 3. Gigabit Ethernet Port LED Status for Ports 1 and 2
LED State Description
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.
LINK On Good 10, 100, and 1000 Mbps Fast Ethernet link.
Off No link; possible link at different speed, possible bad cable, bad connector, or configuration mismatch.

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Broadcom Advanced Server Program (BASP) Overview

Introduction

BASP is a Broadcom intermediate software driver for Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, 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.

NOTE: *Standby can only be used in Smart Load-Balance mode (see below).

Limitations

Smart Load-Balance (SLB) is a protocol specific scheme and the level of support for IP, IPX, and NetBEUI are listed below.

 

Failover/Failback - All Broadcom

Failover/Failback - Multivendor

 

IP

IPX

NetBEUI

IP

IPX

NetBEUI

W2K

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Windows Server 2003

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

NW 5.x/6.0

Y

Y

N/S

Y

N

N/S

LX AS2.1, 8.0

Y

N/S

N/S

Y

N/S

N/S

 

Load Balance - All Broadcom

Load Balance - Multivendor

 

IP

IPX

NetBEUI

IP

IPX

NetBEUI

W2K

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

Windows Server 2003

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

N

NW 5.x/6.0

Y

Y

N/S

Y

Y

N/S

LX AS2.1, 8.0

Y

N/S

N/S

Y

N/S

N/S

LEGEND: Y = yes
  N = no
  N/S = not supported

*Third party adapters must be NICE patched or NESL compliant to be fault tolerant and load balance in a multivendor team in Linux and NetWare, respectively.

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.

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.

NOTE: Broadcom Advanced Server Program (BASP) requires that at least one adapter in the team must be a Broadcom adapter.

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Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows Server 2003

The following options are supported under Windows Server 2003. See "Windows Server 2003 Driver Software," for additional information.

Failover and Load Balance

Virtual LAN (VLANs)

Power Management

NOTE: Adapter speed connection when the system is down waiting for a wake up signal is either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, but can return to 1000 when the system is up and running if connected to a 1000 Mbps capable switch. Systems intending to use WOL should be connected to a switch capable of both 1000 and 10 or 100 speeds.


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Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows 2000

The following options are supported under Windows 2000. See "Windows 2000 Driver Software," for additional information.

Failover and Load Balance

Virtual LAN (VLANs)

Power Management

NOTE: Adapter speed connection when the system is down waiting for a wake up signal is either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, but can return to 1000 when the system is up and running if connected to a 1000 Mbps capable switch. Systems intending to use WOL should be connected to a switch capable of both 1000 and 10 or 100 speeds.


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Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Windows NT 4.0

The following options are supported under Windows NT. See "Windows NT 4.0 Driver Software" for additional information.

Failover and Load Balance

Virtual LAN (VLANs)

Power Management

NOTE: Adapter speed connection when the system is down waiting for a wake up signal is either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, but can return to 1000 when the system is up and running if connected to a 1000 Mbps capable switch. Systems intending to use WOL should be connected to a switch capable of both 1000 and 10 or 100 speeds.

PCI Hot plug

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Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 2

The Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 2 is a graphics user interface with the following functions. See "Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 2 " for additional information.

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Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Novell NetWare

The following options are supported under Novell NetWare. See "NetWare Driver Software," for additional information.

Failover and Load Balance

NESL Compliance

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.

Virtual LAN (VLANs)

Offloading

Power Management

PCI Hot plug


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Broadcom Advanced Server Program for Linux

The following options are supported under Linux. See "Linux Driver Software" for additional information.

Failover and Load Balance

Virtual LAN (VLAN)

Power Management

NOTE: Adapter speed connection when the system is down waiting for a wake up signal is either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, but can return to 1000 when the system is up and running if connected to a 1000 Mbps capable switch. Systems intending to use WOL should be connected to a switch capable of both 1000 and 10 or 100 speeds.

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Creating a Driver Disk

Create driver disks using the Broadcom MakeDisk utility (setup.exe file). This utility runs under Windows, and allows you to create disks with the following drivers:

To create a driver disk, perform the following:

  1. Insert a 3.5" disk into floppy drive A (default) or B.

  2. Insert the Broadcom CD-ROM into your system's CD-ROM drive.

  3. If the CD-ROM does not autorun, then run the makedisk file (\MakeDisk\setup.exe).

  4. Follow the menu commands to the Driver Selection screen.

  5. Select (check) the drivers needed and click Next. Note that selecting multiple drivers results in creating multiple disks.

  6. Ensure that a diskette is in the disk drive and click OK. The selected driver is copied.

  7. If more than one driver was selected, the Setup Needs the Next Disk screen appears again. Insert another diskette and click OK.

  8. When all driver diskettes have been created, an information screen appears confirming that the diskettes were successfully created. Click OK.

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