Question : Problem: how to configure dual network adapters

Hi,

I have 2 Windows Server 2003 Standard Ed. servers; one a DC and the other a data collection server.  Both server servers have 2 gigabit network adapters that were never setup by the previous technician.

I am looking for info on how to properly configure both server to take advantage of their dual network adapters.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Bullfrog

Answer : Problem: how to configure dual network adapters

In the active/passive scenario (Broadcom refers to it as Smart Load Balancing)  that I mentioned, you are correct - one NIC would be dormant until the other dies or goes offline.  I've used SLB in a high-availability environment with good results, but if you're looking to increase speed of access, and depending on the switches you have in use, you may want to consider Link Aggregation.  

Are you looking to generally improve performance or is there a specific speed-access problem that has been identified?  If you want to increase the access speed to solve an existing problem, have you been able to verify that the bottleneck is the capacity of the NIC?  If not, teaming the NICs may not resolve the bottleneck and net no improved performance as a result.  

Broadcom has a very good white paper available (which includes a decision making flowchart) : support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/r35278/broadcom%20nic%20teaming_1.1_final.doc

Also, there is an earlier thread on this topic for which gj99116 provided some very good additional reading.