Servers not booting after enabling teaming

One of our customers is setting up 3 new Windows 2003 Servers.
The installation was fine, but after enabling teaming on the onboard nics,
all 3 servers stopped responding at boot-time. Now the only boot in Safe mode
(without networking), and Last Know Good Configuration does not fix the
problem.
Two of the servers are Dell PowerEdge 2950, the third is Dell too but I
don’t know the model. NICs are Broadcom and are embedded in the motherboard.

1) What drivers/services do I have to disable to prevent teaming to load and
succesfully boot in normal mode?
2) Is there some known issue with teaming and/or Broadcom nics, Windows
server, some bugfix I’m not aware, etc.?

Maybe I have not given sufficient informations, but that’s all I got for the
moment (tomorrow I ‘ll be able to contact my customer in order to have
further details), in the meantime I’ll be glad if someone could give some
hints nonetheless.

Thanks for your attention

I would check if there is a new driver for the NIC or teaming software.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com


"trhacker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7C683DBC-5C13-4A16-AF03-(E-Mail Removed)...
> One of our customers is setting up 3 new Windows 2003 Servers.
> The installation was fine, but after enabling teaming on the onboard nics,
> all 3 servers stopped responding at boot-time. Now the only boot in Safe
> mode
> (without networking), and Last Know Good Configuration does not fix the
> problem.
> Two of the servers are Dell PowerEdge 2950, the third is Dell too but I
> don’t know the model. NICs are Broadcom and are embedded in the
> motherboard.
>
> 1) What drivers/services do I have to disable to prevent teaming to load
> and
> succesfully boot in normal mode?
> 2) Is there some known issue with teaming and/or Broadcom nics, Windows
> server, some bugfix I’m not aware, etc.?
>
> Maybe I have not given sufficient informations, but that’s all I got for
> the
> moment (tomorrow I ‘ll be able to contact my customer in order to have
> further details), in the meantime I’ll be glad if someone could give some
> hints nonetheless.
>
> Thanks for your attention
>
>

Thank you Robert,
I've checked for new drivers and a new version of BASP application
(Broadcom's network management program).
First of all, i had to disable all the virtual nics teaming drivers, in
order to delete teaming and make the system boot again.
Then I updated the drivers and basp to the latest version.
Finally, I installed MS patch 912222 (Scalable Networking Pack release)
suggested by Dell, necessay for TOE functionality, as far as I understand.
After that I'm facing the following behaviour: most of the time the server
starts correctly (with teaming enabled and working), sometimes it doesn't
boot at all (the same behaviour like before, i.e. the system hangs at Windows
Logo).

Any further hints would be more apprecited

Regards
Gabriele

"Robert L. (MS-MVP)" wrote:

> I would check if there is a new driver for the NIC or teaming software.
>
> --
> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
> http://www.ChicagoTech.net
> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
> http://www.HowToNetworking.com
>
>
> "trhacker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:7C683DBC-5C13-4A16-AF03-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > One of our customers is setting up 3 new Windows 2003 Servers.
> > The installation was fine, but after enabling teaming on the onboard nics,
> > all 3 servers stopped responding at boot-time. Now the only boot in Safe
> > mode
> > (without networking), and Last Know Good Configuration does not fix the
> > problem.
> > Two of the servers are Dell PowerEdge 2950, the third is Dell too but I
> > don’t know the model. NICs are Broadcom and are embedded in the
> > motherboard.
> >
> > 1) What drivers/services do I have to disable to prevent teaming to load
> > and
> > succesfully boot in normal mode?
> > 2) Is there some known issue with teaming and/or Broadcom nics, Windows
> > server, some bugfix I’m not aware, etc.?
> >
> > Maybe I have not given sufficient informations, but that’s all I got for
> > the
> > moment (tomorrow I ‘ll be able to contact my customer in order to have
> > further details), in the meantime I’ll be glad if someone could give some
> > hints nonetheless.
> >
> > Thanks for your attention
> >
> >
>

On Dec 1, 6:59 am, trhacker <trhac...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> Thank you Robert,
> I've checked for new drivers and a new version of BASP application
> (Broadcom's network management program).
> First of all, i had to disable all the virtual nics teaming drivers, in
> order to delete teaming and make the system boot again.
> Then I updated the drivers and basp to the latest version.
> Finally, I installed MS patch 912222 (Scalable Networking Pack release)
> suggested by Dell, necessay for TOE functionality, as far as I understand.
> After that I'm facing the following behaviour: most of the time the server
> starts correctly (with teaming enabled and working), sometimes it doesn't
> boot at all (the same behaviour like before, i.e. the system hangs at Windows
> Logo).
>
> Any further hints would be more apprecited
>
> Regards
> Gabriele
>
>
>
> "Robert L. (MS-MVP)" wrote:
> > I would check if there is a new driver for the NIC or teaming software.
>
> > --
> > Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> > Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
> >http://www.ChicagoTech.net
> > How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
> >http://www.HowToNetworking.com
>
> > "trhacker" <trhac...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >news:7C683DBC-5C13-4A16-AF03-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > One of our customers is setting up 3 new Windows 2003 Servers.
> > > The installation was fine, but after enabling teaming on the onboard nics,
> > > all 3 servers stopped responding at boot-time. Now the only boot in Safe
> > > mode
> > > (without networking), and Last Know Good Configuration does not fix the
> > > problem.
> > > Two of the servers are Dell PowerEdge 2950, the third is Dell too but I
> > > don't know the model. NICs are Broadcom and are embedded in the
> > > motherboard.
>
> > > 1) What drivers/services do I have to disable to prevent teaming to load
> > > and
> > > succesfully boot in normal mode?
> > > 2) Is there some known issue with teaming and/or Broadcom nics, Windows
> > > server, some bugfix I'm not aware, etc.?
>
> > > Maybe I have not given sufficient informations, but that's all I got for
> > > the
> > > moment (tomorrow I 'll be able to contact my customer in order to have
> > > further details), in the meantime I'll be glad if someone could give some
> > > hints nonetheless.
>
> > > Thanks for your attention- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I'd remove the TOE Key (TCP/IP Offload Engine Key) from the
motherboard. See following for location of the TOE Key:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1054670

I hope that helps, all the best!

A final update to this post, now the issue seems to be resolved.

I followed this procedure:
- restored the server disabling the virtual teaming driver and the Packer
scheduling driver (seemed not able to load at boot time).
- restored/repaired the old broadcom drivers through the installer
- updated Broadcom drivers and applications to the latest release
- disabled Packet Scheduler on both the phisycal nterfaces
- created a new team with only one adapter bounded to it
- after several reboots, added the second interfaces to the team.

Now all 3 servers are functioning properly, made several reboots, plus
tested Teaming for network loss and everything is working fine.

In the end, I think it all relied on Packet Scheduler (maybe I shouldn't
have disabled the packet scheduler driver when restoring the server, but only
the teaming driver), however...all well what ends well