I have a Windows 2000 advanced server box with dual NICs. I want to configure them to be primary and secondary for fault tolerance.

I assign both an IP in the same subnet, and assign the first to Metric 1 and the second to Metric 2.
I add other IPs to metric 1.
I then uplug metric 1.
I go to another computer and one of the IPs assigned exclusively to metric 1, but metric 2 does not seem to take over.

I have read that the above procedure is all that has to be done to get this to work.

Can anyone suggest to me what I may be doing wrong?

Thanks

When setting up multi-homed NIC's in a WIN2K box any IP's you statically assigned to your metric 1 card , you must also do the same to your metric 2 card.

What is happening is the IP's are assigned specifically in the routing table to the metric 1 card. When that dies so do the IP's that you have there. In order for metric 2 to pick up , they both must be configured the same way.

You can eliminate this by using DHCP and Dynamic DNS but it depends on what you are doing with this server.

Hope this helps you out. :)

Regards,

Brian

What brand NICs do you have?

Thank you for the help so far!

I have a Dell Powerapp.web with dual integrated Intel 8255x-based ethernet. I did some research and found that this chipset supports fault tolerance, but I have not found any way of implementing that except throught the 'metric system' (bad joke..hehe). I am trying to get away from having to worry about managing two routing tables, if that is possible.

I must admit that I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to Fualt-tolerant Ethernet. Basically, all I want to do is enter a static IP one time, and have metric 2 look at metric 1's routing table if metric 1 goes down.

Thanks!:D

Yep, they handle load balancing & fault tolerance well but I am not how to do it in Linux (which I assume you are using). Intel makes this great app for Windows which allows easy configuration. I am not sure if they have it for Linux, but you may want to check.

Cool Thanks!!

I am actually using Windows 2000 advanced server, so I can use the Intel utility. I am going to try to find it right now.

Thanks again!

OK, I need to go back to school and learn how to read. Sorry, I did not see that you are running a W2K server.

It's called Intel PROSet II and it's include with the drivers.

Hope that helps!

Awesome...Thanks again for the help!