Server onboard NIC maxed out

[Jahova]

At my work we have a general file and application server, and the thing has maxed out it's network connection. It will stay at 100% because so many users are connecting through various methods. Currently, it has an onboard 10/100 Mbit/s ethernet connection. Oh and it is an older HP, running Windows Server 2003.

Boss-man has approved the funds to spend pretty much whatever I need on an upgrade. I am thinking that it needs at least 1Gbit/s ethernet port, but I am not entirely sure our switch can handle 1Gbit/s (at this time). It is a Cisco switch, and I will get the model number of the switch and router tomorrow.

Anyway, if it boils down to 10/100Mbit/s as the only option, does it help to have a 4-port NIC with all 4 ethernet cables running in 100Mbit/s?

[killermodz]

4 10/100 nics will work so long as your model switch supports port bonding

[luckybob]

the real flaw in this great plan is the switch. Killer is right, if the switch supports bonding, you can use 4 nics for a total of 400mbit. To that end, dont even bother. Get a new gigabit switch and a gig card for the server.

Or if you really want to make things "future proof" get a gig switch with a 10gig port, and provided the server has at least a 4x pci-e slot, a 10gig nic. then if you upgrade the server at a later date, the 10g nic can still go in the new machine.

nic: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833106043

Cable prices have come down in the last 6 months or so: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=

switch: 24x 1gb ports + 4x 10G ports: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122208 only $1400! Naturally bigger ones cost more, and if you "have" to have a Cisco, just double the price of the netgear...

[Jahova]

Well, let's try the cheaper alternative (NIC) now, then we can get a better switch later when I have another excuse for that.

How can I find out if the switch supports NIC bonding?

[WordMasterRice]

Originally Posted by Jahova

Well, let's try the cheaper alternative (NIC) now, then we can get a better switch later when I have another excuse for that.

How can I find out if the switch supports NIC bonding?

Just grab the model number. If it's a real Cisco product that runs IOS you should be fine though.

If you have access to the Cisco specs for your switch Cisco calls it Etherchanneling. I can help you out with the actual setup of the switch if you need it.

[Jahova]

I am at work so I must post quick.

Server:
HP Workstation xw8400

Switch:
Cisco Catalyst 3500 series XL inline power

[WordMasterRice]

You should be all set then, that does use IOS.

It also looks like it supports 2 gigabit connections, something to look into.

[killermodz]

That switch will do bonding no problem. Depending on the sub model, it may also have a gbic slot. If so, it will take a copper gbic so that you can do 10/100/1000 to the server.

[Jahova]

This is the card that I will be installing:
4-ports on it
Intel E1G44HT Server Adapter I340-T4 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 2.0 4 x RJ45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833106049

It should be here Friday. I will have some Cat6 cables ready for it and stuff.

It has been a while since I used Cisco commands and equipment. So will I need to enter commands to have Etherchanneling, or is it ready to rock when plugged in?

[killermodz]

If you have that card on the way, I'd seriously give a look into the gbic slot on your switch, if so equipped. For ~30 more, you could to go straight 1000mbit, and have three ports ready for expansion.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/cisco-ws-g54...item231f4fe7bb

As far as the etherchannel, its a set of commands to sanction off the ports you plan on using on the switch.

[WordMasterRice]

I just want to make sure it is clear that a 4 port etherchannel is not a fix-all as far as bandwidth is concerned. Its sort of like SLI, just because you have 4 100meg connections doesn't mean you now have 1 400meg connection. It is a little more complicated than that. It works best when you have many connections so that all of the connections get served faster, rather than a single connection getting faster (I hope that makes sense). On top of that if you don't get the etherchannel setup properly you will just end up with a lot more hardware and no improvement.

[Jahova]

I am thinking about that 1Gbit/s upgrade. How hard is it to configure? Ya see, the password to the switch might be long gone... my networking predecessor is not even in this country anymore.

Etherchanneling, I will be happy to get even 15% improvement from each port. Does it work on 1000Mbit?

[WordMasterRice]

Without the password to the switch you will be SOL as far as etherchannel goes unless you do a factory reset and start over.

It does work with 1gig connections just the same, actually it is more of a port distinction than a connection distinction.

As far as setup on the switch, basically you care going to create a port-group, and then assign ports to it and you are going to want to make sure that it is setup as IP grouping. I can walk you through exactly how to do it when you get to that point.

[Jahova]

The 4-port NIC arrived today. It is exciting, and I hope I can handle this. It's been years since I used Cisco commands, and I only used what I needed in InfoSec classes.

I found this genius idea for resetting a password:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/...80094184.shtml
I think it is implying to start the switch in SAFE-MODE equivalent, then gain admin access, then load the config file, then overwrite the password since it would already be in [enable] mode. Would it even work?

Tomorrow, I will drop the 4-port card in. I have some CAT6 cable ready for it.

*edit*
Found my USB-serial converter and cable to connect into service port. I will probably just use Putty if possible. I am a little bit familiar with Putty. So how do I get started on this Etherchanneling?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRYF62czX6g

Additional Comment:

They make the password recovery look easy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOp0M3_kb4

[WordMasterRice]

Ok well you are going to start by going into config mode

config terminal

Now you want to turn the channel-group on so you do

interface port-channel 1
exit

You can change the channel number if you already have some etherchannels, I used 1.

Then you just add whatever ports you want to be in the channel to it, you do this by selecting each port and adding it, here is an example.

interface gigabit0/1
channel-group 1 mode on
exit
interface gigabit0/2
channel-group 1 mode on
exit

Finally you are going to want to switch your load balancing settings. Cisco switches come from the factory with MAC based load balancing but most everything else uses IP load balancing. To do this run

port-channel load-balance ethernet source-dest-ip

Now you can exit config mode and you should be all set.

If you are using vlans you can set up your port-channel interface just as if it were any other port and give it switchport access.

If that sounds confusing or anything you can just post the output of

show running-config

and I can tell you exactly what to type to get everything up and running.

Good Luck

[Jahova]

I just ordered this for 1Gbit/s:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/cisco-ws-g54...#ht_500wt_1115

The 4-port NIC is using all 4 ports but each client still has a max of 12-16mb/s. It appears to be 1 port per client right now. Still need to get Etherchanelling and the switch password stuff.

[WordMasterRice]

You can't run multiple ports like that in any sort of reliable fashion without etherchanneling. Also, as I already explained even with an etherchannel you wouldn't get any more than that kind of throughput.

[Jahova]

Still no password from references... We have a T1 line with Cbeyond and their router is hooked up and our switch has a public IP. I just don't want to lose anything (like config file) that might be on the switch making it work.

If I hold down the MODE button and power on the switch, I should be able to enter some kind of diagnostics mode. Then I want to issue these commands to get in?

switch: flash_init
switch: load_helper

switch: dir flash:
switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.old

switch: boot
switch: en

Switch# copy flash:config.text system:running-config

Sw1# conf t

Sw1(config)# enable secret
Sw1(config)# enable password

Sw1(config)# line vty 0 15
Sw1(config-line)# password

Sw1(config-line)# login

Sw1(config-line)# line con 0
Sw1(config-line)# password

Sw1# write memory
Sw1# copy run start

So I don't accidentally cause a Chernobyl disaster on our network, would you review these commands for me? Will these commands preserve any current configuration file, with the exception of passwords?

[WordMasterRice]

Looks good to me, the only thing you are really doing is saving the current config, changing the password and then saving your changes. The actual configuration shouldn't really be changing all that much.

[Jahova]

Alright the password is reset and there was almost nothing in the configuration file.

For Etherchanneling, the config looks something like this (fa = FastEthernet):

interface fa 0/4
port group 1
exit
interface fa 0/22
port group 1
exit
interface fa 0/24
port group 1
exit

The command "channel-group" does not work on the 3500xl. However, I found the command is "port group". I ran a check to see if Etherchannel is working, and it says it is turned on and lists the interfaces above... but I don't really know if it is working.

So did I do this right, or was this easier than I expected?