using 2 NIC's on a single pc for redundancy

quickshot89 · 13 Aug 2010 at 10:33

Ok, so i just disabled the PCI NIC on my small server at home while im out and about, so now i cant RDP into it. Is it possible to use the on board NIC as a redundancy backup, so if the PCI NIC goes off again it takes over with the same IP address? kind of annoying when you have to get your folks to go re-enable your NIC so you can dial back in :rolleyes:

PistolPete · 13 Aug 2010 at 11:36

Some cards you can do teaming, but generally they have to be the same type, model or manufacturer (sometimes both).

In your instance I'd be tempted to get my hands on a couple of cheap Intel Pro/100 or Pro/1000 PCI cards, then team them together.

quickshot89 · 13 Aug 2010 at 12:13

where is the best place to get them? and do they come in pci versions?

PistolPete · 13 Aug 2010 at 13:12

Anywhere that's cheap.

I think I paid about £7 each for single port PCI Pro/1000 MTs off the bay - just checked there is a guy selling 10+ for 10euros (from Ireland) so that's about 8 quid each.
There is even a few PCI-e dual ports currently at silly bids (if you have PCI-e slots free)

There are a lot of dual and quad ports going for silly money too but are PCI-X.
If you have the clearance on your board you can put a PCI-X card in a PCI slot and have the last bit overhang. I had 2 PCI-X Quad ports that I ran in my old VMWare test machine in PCI slots so each VM could have it's own physical NIC.

Yamahahahahaha · 13 Aug 2010 at 14:29

You can use LACP to failover to a different connection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation#Advantages_over_static_configuration

PistolPete · 13 Aug 2010 at 14:49

Doesn't that require the manufacturers software, and thus usually the same make/model of card??

vsmora · 13 Aug 2010 at 23:34

Teaming NICs is great for servers that cannot afford any interruption in service. In your case it sounds like you just want a failsafe to allow you to RDP back in? If so, then there's no need to spend on extra NICs. Just enable your existing 2nd NIC on a different IP and have your router redirect an alternate port number to it for emergency use e.g. 63389. You'd then simply add the alternate port to the IP in your RDP client when required e.g. "server:63389"

morfmedia · 14 Aug 2010 at 12:16

Or you could go with the option of not remotely disabling the NIC

PistolPete · 14 Aug 2010 at 13:03

morfmedia said:
Or you could go with the option of not remotely disabling the NIC

+1 The answer to the problem may not be a technological one! hahah

quickshot89 · 14 Aug 2010 at 13:05

morfmedia said:
Or you could go with the option of not remotely disabling the NIC

yeah, that is the best option, but not everything goes to plan now does it

PistolPete · 14 Aug 2010 at 14:29

vsmora said:
Teaming NICs is great for servers that cannot afford any interruption in service. In your case it sounds like you just want a failsafe to allow you to RDP back in? If so, then there's no need to spend on extra NICs. Just enable your existing 2nd NIC on a different IP and have your router redirect an alternate port number to it for emergency use e.g. 63389. You'd then simply add the alternate port to the IP in your RDP client when required e.g. "server:63389"

You can only have RDP listening on 1 port at a time.
However, if your router supports port and address translation you could setup 2 forwardings:

1) Ext:3389 -> 192.168.0.2:3389
2) Ext:3390 -> 192.168.0.3:3389

AbsenceJam · 14 Aug 2010 at 15:06

Or you could just install logmein say and so long as one interface is connected you can get in with no worries about port forwarding and ip's.

vsmora · 15 Aug 2010 at 00:45

PistolPete said:
...However, if your router supports port and address translation you could setup 2 forwardings:

1) Ext:3389 -> 192.168.0.2:3389
2) Ext:3390 -> 192.168.0.3:3389

Heh that's what I meant

. Guess I could have explained it better.

Anyway, solving the PEBCAK is the best option since it needs no reconfiguration or hardware