Dell PowerEdge 2970 - Manual (Page 4)

Dell Enterprise Server Windows Installation Best Practices with Broadcom NetXtreme Devices
2. Overview
Broadcom drivers on Dell PowerEdge™ servers support both the NetXtreme and the
NetXtreme II family of adapters. The device drivers for the two device families are very
different in their architecture, but both devices are supported by common management
applications such as the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (BACS), SNMP, and CIM,
and a common intermediate driver that provides teaming (link aggregation) support.
Because of this architecture and the dependency on file versions for the various
components to function well together, the Broadcom drivers are provided in an
InstallShield installer package. The install package ensures that the versions of all of the
components are tested to be compatible with each other as well as compatible between
the two different families of adapters.
The Broadcom NetXtreme family of devices (NX1), the legacy devices, uses a simple
NDIS device driver
⎯one driver for one device. The installation method for this driver
using Plug and Play is simple and straight-forward.
New technology delivered by the NetXtreme II (NX2) devices, such as TCP/IP Offload
Engine (TOE), require that the Broadcom NX2 devices have two device drivers
⎯the
Virtual Bus Driver (VBD) and the NDIS Client Driver. This combination of device drivers
makes the installation via Plug and Play a bit more complicated.
In addition to the device drivers, there are the intermediate driver and applications that
provide advanced services and functions. This combination of drivers and applications
can be quite complicated to install; so Dell and Broadcom provide an InstallShield
installer. Using the InstallShield installer simplifies the process since the installer takes
care of the order of installation as well as ensuring the versions of all of the components
match so that they cooperate well together.
The Broadcom device drivers are still Microsoft
® Windows ® Plug and Play compliant and
may be installed without the assistance of the installer, but the use of the installer is
highly encouraged by Dell whenever possible in order to minimize complications.
The unique architecture of the Broadcom NetXtreme II drivers requires some specific
steps to successfully complete installations, especially automated or unattended
installations, which are different than previous drivers required.
Both the NetXtreme I and NetXtreme II drivers are included in one installer package,
along with the management apps, for convenience and version compatibility.
2.1. Obtaining the Plug and Play Drivers
The Broadcom device drivers are Microsoft Windows Plug and Play compliant and may
be extracted from the installer by running setup.exe from the Broadcom driver directory
with the “/a” command line parameter and following the on-screen instructions.
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