Link Aggregation? (Win2003/Synology)

[casperse]

Hi All

After reading much about the HP V1810-24G Switch I decided to order one with a new Synology NAS.
I wanted support for Link Aggregation and Jumbo frames.

1) I have a workstation that have 2 x Gigabit MB connections:
Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010
NVIDIA nForce network controller.
Is there any way to use these controller in a Link aggregation setup?

2) If not then would buying a Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter be a working solution?(Since Windows 7 & 2003 dosent support this with native drivers?)

3) I have one fixed IP to a DMZ for the synology, can I setup the other 3 x Gigabit connections with a dynamic (DHCP) setup for Link Aggregation? (I could also lock the MAC Address to a fixed IP on the router?)

4) Actually can anyone recommend the best setup for Link aggregation with the below setup?
My new Synology NAS have 4 x 1Gigabit connections available.
My master workstation for editing HD video (Need fast transfer!)
My local network to distribute multimedia.
Also need to move +20TB from a Windows 2003 server to a new Synology NAS so any recommendation on how to speed this up is most welcome!

//Thanks for a great Forum!

 

[casperse]

Found this:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12125&postcount=7

But not sure if this proves that the above card would work? or I need 2 special Intel cards?

 

[ntm1275]

1. I don't think you can 'team' two different makes of NIC for Link Aggregation, they need to be the same make unless there is some special piece of software that I haven't heard about

2. Yes the Pro/1000 PT can be an option - I have the same NIC in my workstation

3. I would assume so, because it is possible to 'team' more than 2 NIC's together for Link aggregation

One word of warning though:-

Link Aggregation works when a device is doing the 'serving', when it's not 'serving', the maximum speed possible can only ever be up to 125MB/s (1 Gigabit)

If you are using the workstation and want to read or write a single file or multiple files to/from the NAS, you will only use a 1 Gigabit connection, even though you have a NIC that is 'teamed' to 2 Gigabit
Unless you are going to use the workstation as a server, a 2 port link aggregation enabled NIC is of no use at all in a workstation

Where the link aggregation comes in to play is when multiple workstation are reading/writing to the NAS (i.e. the NAS is 'serving'), then the NAS can theoretically 'serve' at up to 3 Gigabit speeds (if you have the three NIC's teamed), but this would depend on other factors like the speed of the NAS hard drives etc

Hope that makes sense, as I think I've just confused myself while I was writing it

 

[GregN]

1. I don't think you can 'team' two different makes of NIC for Link Aggregation, they need to be the same make unless there is some special piece of software that I haven't heard about

With Intel Advanced Networking Services, only one of the NICs need to be Intel.

http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-009747.htm

There are listed a whole lot of caveats and addendum there.

I sure hope this is the case, I just bought a used managed gigabit switch (Dell PowerConnect 5224) used on EBay so I can eliminate several unmanaged switches being used as expanders, increase the number of available ports, and do link aggregation to my DAS.

Yet another reason to go with Intel NICs

Anyone have experience with the Dell Switch? I know I'm going to have to go out and fetch a null modem cable (or dig up my dusty DB9 NM pigtail, buried for years somewhere...), any other gotchas?