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Q on Unity dual NICs

msulieman
Level 1
Level 1

hi

i have a cisco unity to be installed on 7825 MCS IBM with dual NICs, i want

to ask about how to configue these dual NICs:

is NIC teammig supported in this platform, if yes how to configue it?

if no, is the only choice for the 2 NICs to be active-passive?

and should i configure fualt tolerance NFT or AFT

and so what to choose (AFT or NFT?) and how to configure either?

and hence, should the both NICs be configured with the same IP address?

please help on how to accomplish this?

many thanks

9 Replies 9

Here is a document on configuring teaming on the MCS servers. Even though it references the MCS OS 2000.4.4, it should still be applicable even if you used the Unity OS disks or the manufactored supplied discs along with a copy of Windows.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/voiceapp/ps378/prod_installation_guide09186a0080799d7c.html#wp48758

Please rate any helpful posts

Thanks

Fred

thanks Fred for this nice link, I have the following inquiries:

1.it seems that cisco does not support load balancing (active-active) on any MCS regardless of the voice application installed on this MCS. is this correct?

2. cisco supports only the failover fault-tolerance and calls it a network teaming and this teaming is active-standby functionality. is this also correct?

3. it seems also according to the Document that cisco does not support network teaming on Cisco MCS-7825-I2 (my case). then how to deal with the 2 NICs on my 7825-I2 server, how should I configure both?

4. if I don't need to configure Network teaming, should I disable the second NIC, or what? how should I deal with this second NIC, and what will happen in case the first NIC gets down.

please help clarifying the above inquiries.. and many thanks again.

So here is the skinny on NIC teaming.

You can only use Fault tolerant. Because if you use load balancing, you could and probably will have one way audio happening. Unity streams out one NIC, and then returns on another nic... this is not good for any voip application.

You can run Unity with one NIC card. It will still run the same. If the Cisco docs say you can not use the NICs for team, then do not use the NICs for teaming. Simple right click on the NIC not being used, and disable it.

Remember, when you register your Unity License, it is tied to the NICS mac address. If you submitted online your Unity license when your NICs were teamed, you will have to get a new lic key file for the (1) NIC you are going to use.

Make sense? Also, it helps when you have the latest firmware and drivers for the NICS.

Cheers

1. Not in any documentation I've seen. And this document outright says it doesn't

2. Active-Standby is the way they do it, correct.

3. Umm according to that doc yes, but there might be another document that says otherwise. Essentially if you have the NIC software to support it, which all 7825s I think should, then it's usually recommended to be done. I will research.

4. I'd recommend disabling it, if the first fails and you want to reconfigure the second later, then do so. If you want both, then follow the document.

Lastly Unity does support network teaming and it's documented. Here is the latest version notes on it. So essentially follow the document I sent you from before to configure.

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/unity42/42lsupp.htm#wp466508

Please rate any helpful posts

Thanks

Fred

Hey Fred,

Congrats on ur IE..Whats your number ?

Sankar.

Sankar Nair
UC Solutions Architect
Pacific Northwest | CDW
CCIE Collaboration #17135 Emeritus

Sankar,

Thanks dude. CCIE No. 17521. Passed it at the beginning of March.

Fred

Congrats Fred .... very great job !

and thanks for ur effort in ur responses to my post

and here is 5 for both ur CCIE and for ur helpful answer!

Good Call! Jez, I didnt know it changed! I have a 4.2 server, actually a couple running fine with teaming. But I know TAC must have been getting slammed with the dual nics failing, cause Unity to go crazy. (especially in failover)

Hey Fred

have you seen any documentation about NIC teaming and Unity Failover configured. I have typically only used (1) NIC card in each server when Failover is running because of so many issues with Failover. I usually tell customers it does not work. Have you seen any documents to support NIC teaming *with* failover configured? In my opinion, it's kind of silly to have Teaming when you have a failover server anyways.

cheers,

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