Extreme Switches and Microsoft Multicast NLB

I’ve recently been troubleshooting an issue with Extreme Switches and Microsoft Multicast NLB. The Extreme switches (along with many other major Layer 3 switch vendors – Cisco, Juniper etc) have the issue that they break the NLB’s ability to mask the MAC address in use.

When you use Extreme Switches and Microsoft Multicast NLB, each cluster host retains the original MAC address of the adapter. In addition to the original MAC address of the adapter, the adapter is assigned a multicast MAC address, which is shared by all cluster hosts. The incoming client requests are sent to all cluster hosts by using the multicast MAC address. From what I could see on the Extreme switches the Multicast MAC never entered the FDB table.

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Before I start outlining the Extreme Stack Dual Master Errors I’ve had recently let me tell you what I’ve been up to . It has been a while since my last post and I’ve decided to embark on my CCIE. I’ve been busy preparing a lab for the CCIE in Routing and Switching. I’ll be providing updates and links to CCIE resources and tips I come across while I study and learn.

On to the main point of this post – Extreme Stack Dual Master Errors

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Remote Desktop RDP Window wont maximise properly

I’ve got an issue on my work notebook whereby the Remote Desktop RDP Window wont maximise properly and I have finally found a fix for this problem. My screen resolution is 1366×768.

Previously I’ve had to close the RDP window, and reconnect, ensuring that the connection properties were set to Full Screen. I was able to replicate this on my home PC, but only if I dropped the screen resolution to 1366×768. I’ve put up with this for a while, it’s been on my to-do list, but I’ve never got around to looking at it.

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