Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) is a type of team configured to increase your server's transmission and reception throughput. ALB teams automatically load balance transmit traffic.
ALB teams increase throughput by:
Adapter configuration. By adding members to a team, you can increase the total throughput.
Traffic analysis. The ALB software continuously analyzes transmission and reception loads on each team member and then balances the loads across the adapters as needed. Load balancing takes place on a per transmission basis, meaning each adapter handles a separate file transmission.
For ALB teams, all adapters load balance IP (IPv4) and NCP IPX transmit traffic. In addition, ALB teams provide fault tolerance. If the primary adapter fails, the team continues to operate and balance traffic between the remaining operating team members.
ALB teams are compatible with the following:
| Adapter speed | Can be mixed, such as one adapter running at 100 Mbps and one running at 1000 Mbps. |
| Protocols | IP, IPX (NCP) |
| Network configuration | All adapters must be connected to the same switch |
An ALB team may be created with or without RLB enabled. If RLB is disabled, only the primary adapter receives, and the transmission load is shared among all adapters in the team.
For ALB teams with Receive Load Balancing enabled:
The primary adapter receives traffic using any protocol
Active adapters with the highest speeds receive IPv4 traffic
With ALB+RLB teaming, if you choose not to select a preferred primary adapter, Intel PROSet will select one for you.
Because the Intel® PRO/1000 adapter already supports such high-bandwidth, using the ALB feature might cause reduced performance on some servers. This is because many servers available today do not have the CPU or Bus capacity to effectively handle teamed gigabit-class adapters. For best ALB performance, use newer servers that support multiple PCI buses and multiple Pentium® II processors running at a speed of 400 MHz or more. On such a server, install the teamed Intel PRO/1000 adapters on separate PCI buses for maximum ALB performance.
See also: