Definitive recommendation for bonding Broadcom NICS?

[Buchan Milne]

Kevin M. Myer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a rack of 2650's that I want to use a NIC bonding driver with (failover
> and loadbalance mode).  I'm finding it extremely cumbersome to have to
> recompile the bcm5700 and basp drivers for every kernel upgrade.

You should use dkms packages for bcm5700 and basp to solve this issue. I 
thought Dell's CDs shipped with dkms packages for bcm5700 and basp for 
RHEL3 - I also have such packages for RHEL2.1 (where you have no choice 
since the bonding module isnot present) ...

>  And with RHEL
> 3, Update 3, I find I have to restart the network after initial boot for the
> default route to get set properly.  But I'm also seeing posts from folks that
> tg3 doesn't handle well under high loads so using that and the bonding driver
> thats include with Red Hat EL might not work either.
> 

The bonding driver in RHEL3 does work, and there's nothing preventing 
you from using the bonding driver with bcm5700 ...

> What is the definitive recommendation for a bonding driver for Broadcom NICS? 
> Or isn't there one?

Since I don't admin such machines ... I'll let the others answer.

Regards,
Buchan

-- 
Buchan Milne                      Senior Support Technician
Obsidian Systems                  http://www.obsidian.co.za
B.Eng                                RHCE (803004789010797)