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Upgrading I350-T2 driver from v12 to v21 causes 2012R2 to bluescreen!

steam2
New Contributor I
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I'm currently running an I350-T2 NIC in a Windows 2012 R2 server with a Z68 chipset. I have two switches for the network, and each port on the I350-T2 is plugged into one of the two switches.

The current driver version is 12.14.7.0 with a date of 6/18/2015.

I want to team these connections so the appear as one IP and so I can do link aggregation. I am running Hyper-V so I need to do this so I can create an External Virtual Switch in Hyper-V.

Question 1: When I open the properties of one of the network adapters on the I350-T2 NIC and go to configure the NIC to create a team, the wizard goes through to the end and then simply says "Create team failed." No error message, nothing. What is the problem?

Question 2: I downloaded the latest version, v21, from the intel download page. When I run the installation, the server blue screens! I have tried it two times and it has bluescreened the once and the second time it just locked the computer and rebooted!

Is there something I'm missing for how to install the latest drivers for these cards?

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idata
Employee
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Hi OvalPiston,

 

 

 

Thank you for the post.

 

 

1) The setup you have by connecting one port of I350-T2 to one swith and another port on another switch is applicable to Switch Fault Tolerance setup instead of Link aggregation. Please refer to this URL for reference http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005667.html

 

You need to use PROSet software to configure the teaming (not PROADMIN)

 

 

2) Can you clarify where did you install the PROset version 21.0? On the hyper V or the host OS?

 

 

Thanks,

 

wb
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steam2
New Contributor I
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To answer your question, I installed it on the Hyper-V host, not in any VM.

The file I downloaded was PROWinx64.exe (see attachment). Is this the correct software to run?

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steam2
New Contributor I
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Yes, I understand the fault tolerance setup, but I was under the assumption that if the NIC team was configured as dynamic link aggregation that it would not only do fault tolerance, but if two computers were talking to the server, one on one switch and one on the other, then each would communicate at its own full Gbps speed. But if the two ports were plugged into the same switch and those two computers that communicated with the server were also plugged into the same switch, they'd be sharing the 1Gbps connection. Is that correct?

How would I configure the NIC with the two switches to give both fault tolerance and so each computer can communicate at their own full 1Gbps speed? (i.e. when both are transferring multi-GB files)

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idata
Employee
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Hi OvalPiston,

 

 

The driver you downloaded is correct for Windows 2012. Link aggregation does support fault tolerance and combines multiple adapters into single channel to maximize the bandwidth. See definition stated at

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005667.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005667.html

 

"Combines multiple adapters into a single channel to provide greater bandwidth. Bandwidth increase is only available when connecting to multiple destination addresses. ALB mode provides aggregation for transmission only while RLB, SLA, and IEEE 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation modes provide aggregation in both directions. Link aggregation modes require switch support, while ALB and RLB modes can be used with any switch."

 

 

 

2) In response to your question here"But if the two ports were plugged into the same switch and those two computers that communicated with the server were also plugged into the same switch, they'd be sharing the 1Gbps connection. Is that correct?"

 

 

If this is configured as Link aggregation mode, it will transmit and receive in aggregated speed of 2 Gbps when connecting to multiple destination addresses.

 

 

3) In response "How would I configure the NIC with the two switches to give both fault tolerance and so each computer can communicate at their own full 1Gbps speed? (i.e. when both are transferring multi-GB files)"

 

 

Fault tolerance refers to when one link partner fail, the other link partner will take over. With your I350-T2, one port connects to one switch, the other port to another switch and configured as SFT, this is a fault tolerance setup already to ensure the network continues even if one of the port or switch fail but SFT does not support link aggregation.

 

 

The aggregated speed is achieve if you configured the NIC as Link aggregation mode which required the ports of the NICs to connect to single switch only and make sure the switch

 

needs to support link aggregation.

 

 

Thanks,

 

wb

 

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steam2
New Contributor I
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Ok thank you for that information.

Is there a configuration with the I350-T2 to get BOTH link aggregation and fault tolerance?

My other question was why can't I upgrade the drivers for the NIC using the PROWinx64.exe? Windows blue screens every time when that program is run! Do I need to uninstall the existing drivers first? Please tell me how to get the latest drivers updated on the server.

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idata
Employee
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Hi OvalPiston,

 

 

Link aggregation mode supports both faulty tolerance and link aggregation but the implementation is you need to connect the NIC ports to single switch. Please refer to the chart , click on the Teaming mode section to expand for more information

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000005667.html

 

 

Can you try download again the file from this website:

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23073/Intel-Network-Adapter-Driver-for-Windows-Server-2012-R2-?product=59062

 

 

Please share the serial number of your I350-T2, you can find the serial# at the network adapter itself. Refer to this website for the serial# location http://www.intel.ph/content/www/ph/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000007022.html

 

 

Thank yuou.

 

 

Rgds,

 

wb

 

 

 

 

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steam2
New Contributor I
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That's the same file I downloaded previously. Do I need to first uninstall the drivers? Or can I extract them and then update them through Device Manager? Why is it blue screening and what is the correct procedure for updating besides running ProWinx64?

Serial # link gives a 404 error.

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idata
Employee
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Hi Ovalpiston,

 

 

Both way can be done, you can uninstall the driver or extract them and update in device manager or run it directly. It is a straight forward installation.

 

Try this website for the serial number, if you stil cannot access, go to google.com directly and type in Intel 000007022 in the search field to locate the website

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products/000007022.html

 

 

What is the brand and model of your system? Have you tried updating your system BIOS ?

 

 

Thanks,

 

wb

 

 

 

 

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idata
Employee
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HI Ovalpiston,

 

 

Please feel free to provide the information I requested and are you still encountering the said issue of not able to install the driver ?

 

 

rgds,

 

wb

 

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