Regarding Adapter Fault Tolerance vs Switch Fault Tolerance

[Chuck2]

I have a situation where I have several Windows 10 workstations that have two (Intel) NIC's.  Our current architecture has one feed from each NIC going into two separate switches.  When we first built the PC's, we set up the network teams as the "Adapter Fault Tolerance" type and documented that to the customer.  Since that time, we have experienced less than stellar performance when fault testing our network.  We recently were advised that, under our current model (Each PC connected to two switches), we should have set them up as the "Switch Fault Tolerance" type.  Reviewing the documentation, it does appear that this is Intel's recommended way of doing this particular setup. 

However, since we have already documented our current setup to the customer, before we can change the configuration, we need to provide reasoning to them better than just "Intel says....".

Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate much information on the difference vs AFT and SFT.  There does seem to be more detail available about AFT, yet most of the technical details about SFT appears to be more-or-less limited to the recommendation that it be used where the PC is connected to more than one switch.

What are the benefits of using SFT over AFT when more than one switch is involved?

Are there any technical white papers that provide definitive documentation regarding the differences between the two?

Apologies in advance if this has been dealt with in earlier posts.  From what I've found in my searches,  I hadn't noticed the data I was looking for.

Thanks,

Chuck H 

[Mike_Intel]

Hello Chuck2,

Thank you for posting in Intel Ethernet Communities. 

For us to further check the issue, please provide the following details.

1. What is the complete model of the Intel Ethernet card?
2. Are you using onboard network card or a PCIe card?
3. What is the brand and model of your board/system?
4. Can you also share the link of your latest driver? This is also for us to check why you are having performance issue.

If you have questions, please let us know. In case we do not hear from you, we will make a follow up after 3 workings days. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[Chuck2]

MIchael,

Thank you for your interest, but we are not yet in the "troubleshooting stage".   We are looking for any information Intel may have regarding the difference between Adapter Fault Tolerance and Switch Fault Tolerance.  Given the highly regulated nature of our customers, we need to have something to provide to them before we can advise a switch from one (AFT) to the other (SFT).  At this time, we have not been able to provide anything of a technical nature to them.

FYI, when I say we are fault testing our network, our specific issue is with the time it takes our systems (security camera monitors) to failover when one side of the network is deactivated or disconnected.  We are seeing about 5 to 7 seconds of video interruption when this happens while we wait for reconvergence to take place.  We would like for that to be taking place as quickly as possible.  We are implementing Rapid Spanning Tree in our environment.

Just a quick rundown, sorry for not being able to provide an complete answer to your questions.

Intel NICS are onboard the motherboard,

They are I210 and I219 models.

The drivers are:

(I210) 12.15.184.0, dated 10/10/2017

(I219)  5/2/2018, dated 5/2/2018

If needed, I will provide additional information as it is made available.

Chuck

[Mike_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello Chuck2,

Thank you for the quick reply. Kindly check this link, you will find the description of the 2 features that you requested and you can also follow the steps on how to set up teaming and enable Adapter Fault Tolerance vs Switch Fault Tolerance.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000032008/ethernet-products.html

And also, since you mentioned that the Ethernet cards are onboard, you may also contact the manufacturer of the board for further assistance since they may have altered the features of the cards when they embedded it to the motherboard.

If you have questions, please let us know. In case we do not hear from you, we will make a follow up after 3 workings days. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[Chuck2]

Thank you Michael.  I will take what you have given and provide it to my customer. 

[Mike_Intel]

Hello Chuck2,

Thank you so much for the quick update and acknowledging our answer. We will close this thread now and if you need assistance again in the future, please don't hesitate to post a new question.

Thank you and stay safe.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel® Customer Support Technician