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.
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.