Modular Server MFSYS35 Networking Questions

[idata]

We have the Modular Server MYSYS35 with 4 compute modules installed, two network switches, the corresponding mez cards, and two storage controllers. We are running Windows Server 2008 and cannot figure out why there are four physical NICs being presented to the o/s. Is it correct to assume that there is two NICs for each network switch on each compute module?

We really just want to use the second switch for failover, so it seems to me that if the compute modules are showing fully configurable NICs wired internally to that second switch, it can't be automatically failed over. If we lost switch 1, would be have to manually configure settings from the first two NICs on to the second two NICs to start using switch 2?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Edward_Z_Intel]

The compute module has 2 onboard NICs, both connected to the first ethernet switch. The mez card also has 2 ports, both connected to the second ethernet switch.

For failover, you may team two NICs in SFT (Switch Fault Tolerance) mode. For more details, please see http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-009747.htm.

[idata]

Thanks for the reply Edward.

I don't see anything about the Virtual Machine Load Balancing (VMLB) mode there. I think we probably want to use the Switch Fault Tolerance mode as you suggested, but the primary role for each of our CMs is virtualization via Hyper-V. We'll probably be running between 10-15 VMs per server. Should we be considering VMLB?

Thanks again.

[Edward_Z_Intel]

I'm not familiar with VMLB, but from the NIC side the only teaming mode supporting fail-over between two switches is SFT.