Broadcom Advanced Control Suite

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Aug 3, 2024, 3:31:15 PM8/3/24

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Network Test - The Network Test will confirm network connectivity to a remote station. The Network Test sends ICMP packets to remote systems and waits for a response. If a gateway is configured, it will automatically send to that system. If a gateway is not configured or if the gateway is unreachable, it will prompt the user for a destination IP address.

Broadcom recommends that you copy the installation files to your hard disk before running the silent install. This is because the setup bacs command automatically generates a setup.log file in the directory it is run from. When the silent install is run from the CD, it cannot generate this log file, and the setup install fails.

The Vital Sign screen allows you to view vital adapter information, network status, and network connectivity. Active adapters are listed in the Installed Adapters window. When selected, vital sign information for that adapter is displayed.

The Network Test allows you to verify IP network connectivity. This test verifies if the NDIS driver is installed correctly and test connectivity to a gateway or other specified IP address on the same subnet. The Network test supports TCP/IP.

Control Registers Test - This test verifies the read and write capabilities of the network controller registers by writing various values to the registers and verifying the result. The device driver uses these registers to perform network functions such as sending and receiving information. If the test fails, the network adapter may not work properly.

MII Registers Test - This test verifies the read and write capabilities of the physical layer chip registers. The physical layer chip is used to control the electrical signals on the wire and for configuring network speed.

EEPROM Test - This test verifies the content of the EEPROM by reading a portion of the EEPROM and computing the checksum. The test fails if the computed checksum is different than the checksum stored in the EEPROM.

Internal Memory Test - This tests verifies that the network controller internal memory is functioning properly. The test writes patterned values to the memory and reads back the results. The test fails if an erroneous value is read back. The network controller will not function without its internal memory.

From the Cable Analysis screen, the user can monitor conditions of an Ethernet CAT5 cable connection within a cable plant in an Ethernet network. The software measures the cable quality and compares it against the IEEE 802.3ab for compliance. Given a graphical environment, it can display the frequency-response characteristics of each cable pair.

The Length sub tab allows you to verify cable length, which is calculated by a Return Loss algorithm, and determine whether your configuration has the appropriate cable. This utility allows you to determine whether the problem is with the adapter or in the cable plant.

Each channel's frequency response is displayed based on the computation by the cable algorithms. The two graphs represent the values calculated by the Cable Loss and Return Loss algorithms. The vertical axis represents the gain in dB and the horizontal axis represents the operating frequency. The blue graph is the IEEE 802.3ab limit and the red graph is the actual computed values for a particular twisted pair. The two methods of measurement present the typical measurement standards to characterize the cable quality. It is important to take both measurements into consideration, as one result alone is not indicative of the characterization of the cable being tested.

The cable loss (red) curve represents the insertion loss of the cable under test as a function of frequency in the frequency range [0 - 62.5 MHz]. The cable loss limit (blue) curve represents the cable loss limit as specified in Section 40.7.2.1 of the IEEE Standard 802.3ab-1999. The cable loss curve (red) on top of the cable loss limit (blue) curve indicates the cable is within the operating limit. If the cable loss (red) curve superimposes the cable loss limit (blue) curve, the cable is marginal to the operating limit. If the cable loss (red) curve is below the cable loss limit (blue) curve, the cable is outside the operating limit of the IEEE 802.3ab-1999 standards. This condition would signify that the cable length is too long and not operational.

The return loss (red) curve represents the return loss of the cable under test as a function of frequency in the frequency range [0,62.5 MHz]. The return limit (blue) curve represents the return loss limit as specified in Section 40.7.2.3 of the IEEE Standard 802.3ab-1999. The return loss (red) curve below of the return limit (blue) curve indicates the cable is within the operating limit. If the return loss (red) curve superimposes the return limit (blue) curve, the cable is marginal to the operating limit. If the return loss (red) curve is above the return limit (blue) curve, the cable is outside the operating limit of the IEEE 802.3ab-1999 standards. This condition would signify that the cable length is too long and not operational.

The Load Balance/Virtual LANs screen allows you to configure advanced features. Any available adapter can be configured as part of a team. Teaming is a method of grouping multiple adapters into a virtual adapter (bundling multiple adapters to look like a single adapter). The benefit of this approach is load balancing and redundancy, see "Teaming Overview".

An example of this usage using the graphic provided below shows two available adapters on the primary side. By selecting each of the available adapters, and moving each of them over to the Load Balance Members field, they then appear to the outside world as one adapter. Each member in the Load Balance Member list shares the traffic burden of all members.

The Standby Member field is used to permit the selection of one of the team members to handle traffic, should all members in the Load Balance Member list fail (failover). The selected Standby Member will not handle any traffic unless all Load Balance Members fail. When one Load Balance Member (or more) is restored (fail-back), traffic will then be handled by the restored team member(s).

For the adapter node, the menu items are Unassign and Properties. The user can select Unassign to remove the selected adapter from the team orProperties to display the adapter Properties. All display in adapter Properties are read-only.

For the VLAN node, the menu items are Delete andProperties. The user can either select Delete to remove the highlighted VLAN orProperties to display the VLAN Properties. The only writable item on this dialog box is VLAN name.

To remove an adapter from its assigned team, select the adapter in the Load Balance Members list and click the arrow key. The adapter will be removed from the Load Balance Members list and will reappear in the Available Adapters list.

To delete a configured team and release its assigned adapters, select the team you want to delete, and click the Remove Team button. The team and all its assigned adapters will be removed from the team list. The released adapters will reappear in the Available Adapters list.

Adding a VLAN You can add VLANs to a team. The concept behind this is that you are adding multiple virtual adapters that are on different subnets. The benefit of this is that your server can have one NIC that can belong to multiple subnets. With a VLAN you can couple the functionality of load balancing for the Load Balance Members and you can employ a failover adapter.

You can define up to 64 VLANs per team (63 tagged and 1 untagged). VLANs can only be created when all members are Broadcom adapters. If you try to create a VLAN with a non-Broadcom adapter, an error message displays.

The Statistics screen allows you to view traffic statistics for both Broadcom and non-Broadcom adapters. Statistical values and coverage is more comprehensive for Broadcom than for non-Broadcom adapters.

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