While deploying a new Dell PowerEdge 2900 for a customer I enountered a problem where the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite displayed no options for NIC teaming. I checked the Dell Support website first and confirmed that the latest Dell-supplied drivers were already installed on the server.
After a little hunting around I decided to download the latest drivers directly from Broadcom, which were newer than those on Dell’s website. When I tried to install them setup displayed an error that the drivers files were not compatible with files that were already installed. This meant I needed to remove the Broadcom Drivers and Management Tools from Add/Remove Programs, reboot, install the Broadcom driver I had downloaded, reboot again, and then install the Broadcom management tools.
This solved the problem, and Broadcom Advanced Control Suite now shows the NIC team management options correctly.
About Paul Cunningham
Hi, Paul.
I have a PowerEdge 2900 server with the Broadcom NICs as well. I was searching to see if they were compatible with NIC teaming, and your post really helps out. Thanks.