Table Of ContentNP0432_5 OptServer TB.qxd 3/23/99 10:36 AM Page 1
Solving Server
Bottlenecks with
Intel® Server Adapters
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Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel® Server Adapters
Contents
Adaptive Load Balancing Technology 3
Link Aggregation,Fast EtherChannel* and Gigabit EtherChannel* 4
Adapter Fault Tolerance 5
PCI HotPlug* 6
Configuration Considerations 6
Overview
As the sophistication and importance of network-based applications continues to
“The cost of server downtime
grow, pressures are mounting on network servers. The Internet, corporate intranets,
is staggering.”Less than 1%
databases, video conferencing and other high-bandwidth applications are placing
downtime can cost more
heavier demands on server performance and network bandwidth. At the same time,
than $75,000 per year in
more and more users are dependent on these applications to do their work. When
lost revenues,user salaries
a key server fails or slows down, it can hamper productivity for a great many users.
and server outage costs for
In many cases, sales and other customer interactions suffer as well.
a typical small business.*
This technical brief discusses how advanced server adapter technologies address
This translates roughly into
two key issues of server performance – server bottlenecks and downtime due to link
a loss of $4000 per hour
failure (see Table 1). These advanced technologies contribute toward a simple and
of downtime.
cost-effective server solution, providing scalable bandwidth and automatic fail-over
connections for a faster and more dependable network link.
*Source:Network Server Downtime
Cost Analysis,Strategic Research,1998
(www.networkbuyersguide.com – Online
Evaluation Applications).Calculations based
on the servers of a 30-employee,$10M
business going down six times a year,
Problems Causes Advanced Feature Solution:
three hours at a time.
Server bottlenecks n Bandwidth-intensive applications Scalable server bandwidth, using:
(Web, video conferencing, nAdaptive Load Balancing (ALB)
intranet, etc.) n Link Aggregation
n More powerful PC network n Fast EtherChannel* (FEC)
connections (faster bus and n Gigabit EtherChannel* (GEC)
technologies – 100Mbps adapters)
n More high-performance clients
attached to the network
Server downtime n Broken/loose cables Automatic redundant backup links
(due to a failed network n Hub or switch port failures and online serviceability, using:
connection) n Adapter hardware breakdown n Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT)
n PCIslot malfunction – Mixed Adapter Teaming
– Preferred Primary Technology
n PCI HotPlug*
Table 1:Server connectivity problems and their solutions using advanced server adapter features.
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Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel Server Adapters 10/100Mbps Desktops
Running at 100Mbps
80 75%
The Problem: The Solution:
70 64%
Server Bottlenecks A Scalable Network
60
Connection
As sophisticated applications and more 50 44%
powerful desktop PCs drive network traffic Adaptive Load Balancing 40
to new levels,a single 100Mbps channel Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) technology 30
isn’t enough bandwidth for critical server offers a simpler and better way to move more 20
connections – especially as the number of data between the server and the network.ALB 10
desktops connected at 100Mbps increases. can increase server bandwidth up to 400Mbps, 0
1998 1999 2000
In the past,server bottlenecks were typically by automatically balancing data transmission Source: Infonetics 1999
across as many as four network adapters
solved by installing an additional Network Server
(Figure 2).Essentially,each additional adapter
Interface Card (NIC) in the server,and seg- Bandwidth –
adds another 100Mbps link to the network.
menting the network into two subnetworks
A Growing Need
Since the distribution of traffic among the
(Figure 1).This reduced traffic volume on
adapters is automatic,there’s no need to seg- A 1999 study by Infonetics reveals that
each network link,eliminates the bottleneck.
ment or reconfigure the network.The existing
But segmentation poses a new set of prob- more than half of all 10/100Mbps desk-
IP address is shared by all adapters,and the
lems,including additional overhead and the tops are already running at 100Mbps,
traffic is always balanced between them.ALB
need to reassign IP addresses and remap the
and the percentage is rapidly increasing.
can also be used over Gigabit Ethernet links,
network.Segmentation generally requires
That same study sited server bottle-
providing throughputs up to 4Gbps.
additional hardware,such as switches or
necks as the number one reason that
routers.Balancing traffic on the two segments ALB is implemented by installing a team
businesses are migrating to higher
can also be difficult,usually requiringrepeated of server adapters in the server.The adapters
reconfiguration.Finally,since the two adapters can be quickly configured to run ALB using performance networking technologies.
operate in separate network segments,they the Intel®PROSet utility.No client config- Clearly, there’s a need for significant
don’t provide a fail-over connection in the uration is required,and clients don’t have increases in server bandwidth to match
event of a link failure. to be routed to communicate with each
the growing power and demands of
other.Moreover,the multiple adapters pro-
networked clients.
vide automatic emergency backup links to
Fortunately, it’s possible to significantly
Segmenting the Network to Increase Server Bandwidth increase server bandwidth without a
major network overhaul. Load balancing
Server Server
across multiple Fast Ethernet or
Adapter Adapters Gigabit Ethernet server adapters,
Segmentation
using the technologies discussed in
typically requires:
• Additional hardware this technical brief, provides a simple
100Mbps • Reassigning of IP addresses 100Mbps 100Mbps
• Repeated reconfiguration to
balance load and scalable solution. And since these
load-balancing technologies automati-
Switch Switches
cally support redundant network links,
they increase server availability as
well as performance.
Figure 1:Segmentation increases server bandwidth,but typically requires additional hardware and management overhead –
including repeated reconfiguration to balance the traffic load.
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Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel Server Adapters
Two,three or four Intel®Server the switch supports this advanced feature.
Adaptive Load Balancing
Adapters can be configured to work Both incoming and outgoing server traffic
together as an Adaptive Load Balancing are balanced,and can be scaled in incre-
Server
ments of 200Mbps.Total throughputs of
team.All of the adapters in a team must
ALB requires:
up to 800Mbps are possible in Fast
• No new hardware be connected to a switch.They can be
• No new IP address
• No reconfiguration connected to a single switch,or to two
Up to 4 Intel
Server Adapters or more switches,as long as all the Link Aggregation/FEC/GEC
Up to 400Mbps (Fast Ethernet adapters)
Up to 4Gbps (Gigabit adapters) switches are on the same network
Server
segment (they can’t be separated
One channel
two-way
(receive and Hubs by a router).
transmit)
100 Once ALB is configured,all outgoing Up to 4
Intel Server Adapters
10 server traffic will be balanced across the
Up to 800Mbps at full-duplex (Fast Ethernet adapters)
Switch adapter team.Incoming traffic is carried Up to 8Gbps at full-duplex (Gigabit adapters)
by a single adapter.In most environments,
Intel Hubs
this is a highly effective solution,since
server traffic is primarily outbound – All 4 channels 100
transmit and receive 10
Figure 2: With Adaptive Load Balancing,all traffic
from the server to the clients.
traveling from the server is automatically balanced
between as many as four network adapters.This
Link Aggregation/Fast EtherChannel*/
assures fast throughput with no need to restructure Switch must
or reconfigure the network. Gigabit EtherChannel* Technology support Link
Aggregation,
FEC or GEC
Link Aggregation and Fast EtherChannel*
the network.If one server link goes
(FEC) are other technologies that can
down,due to a broken cable,a bad Figure 3: With Link Aggregation,Fast EtherChannel*
be used to increase server bandwidth.
or Gigabit EtherChannel* network traffic traveling to
switch port,or a failed adapter,the
Like Adaptive Load Balancing,they the server as well as from the server is automatically
other adapter(s) automatically accepts balanced between as many as four server adapters.
automatically balance server traffic
the additional load (see Adapter Fault
among as many as four network adapters Ethernet environments (Figure 3).
Tolerance).There’s no interruption in and require no network reconfiguration. Link Aggregation can also be used to
server operation,and a network alert is Unlike ALB,they enable full-duplex aggregate traffic across multiple Gigabit
generated to inform IT staff of the problem. transmissionon all adapters as long as server adapters,for throughputs of up
Advanced Server Adapter Technologies
These technologies provide scalable server bandwidth through load-balancing, as well as automatic redundant connections for increased server availability.
They are not generally supported in desktop adapters.
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT)– Developed by Intel, AFT monitors the server Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)– Developed by Intel, ALB supports scalable
connection to the network and automatically switches traffic to a redundant link bandwidth up to 400Mbps, or 4Gbps in a Gigabit Ethernet environment.
in the event of a failure.
Link Aggregation– Link Aggregation supports scalable bandwidth up to
Mixed Adapter Teaming– Enables one kind of server adapter to be
800Mbps full-duplex; or up to 8Gbps in a Gigabit Ethernet environment.
used as a redundant backup link for a different kind of server adapter.
Link Aggregation requires support in the NIC and the switch.
Mixed Speed Teaming– Enables a 100Mbps server adapter to be
Fast EtherChannel* (FEC)– Developed by Cisco, FEC supports scalable band-
used as a backup link for a Gigabit server adapter.
width up to 800Mbps at full-duplex. Fast EtherChannel requires support in the
PCI HotPlug*– Developed by Compaq,PCI HotPlug is now an industry NIC and the switch.
standard that enables a failed network adapter to be replaced without
Gigabit EtherChannel* (GEC)– Developed by Cisco, GEC supports scalable
taking the server offline.
bandwidth up to 8Gbps at full-duplex. Gigabit EtherChannel requires support
in the NIC and the switch.
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Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel Server Adapters
to 8Gbps at full-duplex.Gigabit the reliability of servers.However,a bro- a cable,and hub or switch port connec-
EtherChannel* (GEC) is another ken or loose network cable,a faulty switch tion.If there is any problem along the
emerging technology that will provide or hub port,or a failed adapter can shut primary link,the secondary link immedi-
similar,full-duplex load-balancing if con- down server operation just as easily as a ately takes over.AFT also initiates a
nected to supporting GEC switches.
server malfunction. network alert.The server remains
Because of their ability to handle online so technicians can take corrective
high-bandwidth,full-duplex traffic loads, The Solution: measures when appropriate – during
Link Aggregation,FEC and GEC are Resilience and off-business hours,for example.
Online Serviceability
ideally suited to high-performance envi-
AFT can be implemented in a
ronments running especially demanding Adapter Fault Tolerance – server using only two server adapters,
applications such as,enterprise servers, Redundant Network Links
one as the primary connection and
Web servers,intranet servers and high-
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) provides the second as a backup.AFT is also
end graphics imaging and rendering
a simple,effective and fail-safe method supported when server adapter
servers.In addition to scalable server
for increasing the availability of server teams are configured for Adaptive
bandwidth,these technologies provide
connections (Figure 4).With two or more Load Balancing,Link Aggregation,
reliable fault tolerance.If one link
server adapters installed in a server,AFT Fast EtherChannel* or Gigabit
fails,the other adapters in the team
can be configured to establish an auto- EtherChannel*. In those cases,ifany
automatically accept the full traffic
matic backup link between the server of the server links fail,for whatever
load,and an alert is generated to
and the network.Should the primary reason,the remaining links automatically
notify IT staff of the problem (see
link fail,the secondary link kicks in within take over to share the traffic load.
Adapter Fault Tolerance).
seconds,in a manner that is transparent to
Mixed Speed and
Whereas ALB works when the Intel applications and users. Preferred Primary Teaming
Server Adapters are connected to the
The redundant link that AFT estab- Unlike most redundant link technologies,
network via any switch,these full-duplex
lishes between the server and the net- AFT supports mixed-speed teaming using
technologies require that the adapters
work includes a redundant adapter, any combination of IntelServer Adapters.
be connected to switches that support
whichever scalable bandwidth technology
Adapter Fault Tolerance Teaming
is configured in the adapter.Link
Server Server
Aggregation is supported by all Intel®
Express 500 Series Switches and the Intel® Same model adapter Different model adapter
used for primary used for primary
Express Gigabit Switch,as well as by and redundant links and redundant links
an increasing number of other vendors’
switch products.Fast EtherChannel
Primary Redundant Primary Secondary
Network Link Network Link Network Link Network Link
works with any FEC-enabled switch. (100 or 1000Mbps) (Same performance (100 or 1000Mbps) (100Mbps)
as primary link)
The Problem:
Server Downtime
Almost every company that depends on
networked computers has a nightmare Scenario 1: Full bandwidth redundant link Scenario 2: Lifeline redundant link (mixed adapter teaming)
story of server failure.As a result,a vari-
Figure 4: Adapter Fault Tolerance and PCI HotPlug*
ety of mechanisms have been implement- If the primary network link fails:1.The failure is immediately detected and the back-up link activated.
2.A network alert is generated to notify IT staff.3.The problem can be fixed with the server still online.
ed by server manufacturers to improve 4.If the failed link was the primary link,it automatically re-establishes itself as the primary link once it is fixed.
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Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel Server Adapters
For example,a Gigabit server adapter When used in conjunction with AFT, Adapters integrate seamlessly into Novell
could be used as the primary network PCI HotPlug allows an adapter to be NetWare* and Microsoft Windows NT*
link.The backup link could be another replaced without interrupting network operating system-based servers.The
Gigabit server adapter,or a Fast Ethernet service.If an adapter fails,AFT auto- advanced features are management-ready
server adapter.With this capability,a matically moves server traffic onto the and simple to use,with intuitive interfaces
relatively inexpensive,100Mbps backup redundant link and generates a network for quick setup and ease-of-use.Standard
link can be used to safeguard a high- alert.PCI HotPlug enables IT staff to operating system interfaces are used for
speed Gigabit Ethernet connection.The replace the failed adapter without NetWare,and Windows NT uses PROSet,
inexpensive backup may not be able to bringing down the server. Intel’s intuitive Windows* OS-based
support the full traffic load as effectively, configuration utility.
but it can allow business critical applica- Configuration
Network alerts for failed links are
tions to stay online until the higher speed Considerations
operating system-based for compatibility
link is fixed. Using Intel®
with management applications.Specifi-
Server Adapters
When configuring AFT,a preferred cally,NetWare alerts are generated for
primary adapter can be specified.If the A single driver provides the software NetWare servers and event logs for
primary link fails,it will automatically agent that supports Adapter Fault Windows NT servers.A management
be reinstated as the primary link once it Tolerance,Adaptive Load Balancing, application,such as Intel®LANDesk®
is fixed.For example,if a Gigabit server Link Aggregation,Fast EtherChannel, Management Suite,can detect these
adapter is being used for specialized, Gigabit EtherChannel and PCI HotPlug. alerts and trigger an appropriate action.
high-demand applications,a less expen- How the agent is configured in a particular For example,a network manager could
choose to be notified of a failure via an
sive backup link can be installed using environment determines which of the
email message,a fax or a call to his
a Fast Ethernet server adapter.If the advanced features is enabled.However,
pager or cellular phone.
primary link fails and is then fixed,traf- all the scalable bandwidth technologies
fic will automatically revert back to the supported by Intel Server Adapters All Intel Fast Ethernet and Gigabit
higher performance link. include built-in support for Adapter Ethernet Server Adapters can also be
Fault Tolerance and PCI HotPlug. configured to work in servers equipped
PCI HotPlug* – Online Serviceability
So,if Adaptive Load Balancing,Link with the Intel®82558 or Intel®82559
PCI HotPlug* enables a failed adapter
Aggregation or Fast EtherChannel is Onboard LAN controller.This enables
to be replaced without taking the server
configured,AFT and PCI HotPlug are AFT,ALB,Link Aggregation or FEC to
offline.The technology was developed by
automatically activated. be configured using fewer PCI slots,by
Compaq,but has since been established
teaming the onboard LAN controller
All the advanced server adapter
as an industry standard,supported in
with add-in Intel Server Adapters.
features supported by Intel Server
most new servers.
Intel®Server Adapters – Support for Advanced Features
Intel®Server Adapter Application AFT HotPlug* ALB Link Agg. FEC* GEC*
PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter High-traffic backbone servers 4 4 4 4 N/A 4
PRO/100 Intelligent Server Adapter High-traffic web servers or file servers 4 4 4 4 4 N/A
PRO/100+ Dual Port Server Adapter Departmental servers with limited PCI slots 4 4 4 4 4 N/A
PRO/100+ Server Adapter Departmental or workgroup servers 4 4 4 4 4 N/A
Table 2: Intel Server Adapters – support for advanced features:AFT – Adapter Fault Tolerance;ALB – Adaptive Load Balancing;Link Agg.– Link Aggregation;
FEC – Fast EtherChannel;GEC – Gigabit EtherChannel
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Solving Server Bottlenecks with Intel Server Adapters
Reliable, In practice,each business can choose to can help to revive network infrastruc-
Scalable and configure the adapter software to use the tures that are otherwise straining under
Easy-to-Configure technologies best suited to the demands increased traffic loads.They also enable
of their server environment and their a more affordable server solution for
Scalable bandwidth technologies,
existing infrastructure.Each technology high-demand networks.By integrating
along with Adapter Fault Tolerance
builds on the preceding one,so nothing high-availability server links and load
and PCI HotPlug,make the Intel Server
is lost as higher-bandwidth load balancing balancing into the network adapter,
Adapter family an ideal solution for
technologies are employed (Table 3). they eliminate the need for specialized
fast network connectivity with enhanced
server hardware and other expensive
server availability.Table 2 shows which By providing scalable bandwidth and
infrastructure components.
advanced features are supported by increased availability at a crucial point
which Intel Server Adapters. in the network,Intel Server Adapters
Advanced Feature Connection Requirements Benefits
Adapter Fault Tolerance with: When connected to any hub or switch n High Server Availability –
– Mixed Speed Teaming Transparent backup connections using
– Preferred Primary any combination of Intel®Server Adapters
PCI HotPlug When connected to any hub or switch and n Online Serviceability – Adapters can
supported in the server be replaced with the server online
Adaptive Load Balancing When connected to any switch n High Server Availability
n Load balancing of outgoing server
traffic for increased throughputs up to 400Mbps
(4Gbps in Gigabit Ethernet environments)
Link Aggregation, When connected to a switch that n High Server Availability
Fast EtherChannel* (FEC), supports Link Aggregation, FEC or GEC n Load balancing of outgoing and incoming
or Gigabit EtherChannel* (GEC) server traffic, for throughputs up to 800Mbps
(8Gbps in Gigabit Ethernet environments)
Table 3: By configuring the adapter for the desired advanced feature support,companies can match the needs and resources of their particular server environment.
As the number one supplier of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity solutions,†Intel has played a leading role in the development of advanced
technologies for server connectivity. Through the effective integration of emerging technologies, Intel®Server Adapters have won 11 out of 11 industry awards,††
and are now being shipped as pre-installed components by top server manufacturers. To help drive the next phase of high-bandwidth connectivity, Intel is
working with other major vendors to establish an IEEE standard for Gigabit connectivity over Category 5 copper cabling.
For more information on Intel®Server Adapters:
n Product information and third-party reviews http://www.intel.com/network/products/server_adapters.htm
n NOS support for advanced server adapter technologies http://www.intel.com/network/technologies/advanced_features.htm
Related Intel White Papers:
n Layer 2 Network Prioritization http://www.intel.com/network/white_papers/priority_packet.htm
n Building a Managed Computing Environment http://www.intel.com/network/white_papers/managed_environment.htm
† Source: Dell’Oro Group, February 1999
†† As of March 1999
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