Today, we have a flat network that includes two nodes in an NLB cluster (serving OWA). We want to segment our network by having our switches insert a dot1q tag into the Ethernet frames (layer 2, ARP) and not based on logical addresses. So our IP address/subnet mask won't change, traffic will be segmented by the switches on each floor identifying the traffic from that floor. The cluster operation mode is multicast, which (I believe) will break when we segment the network since they won't be able to talk via broadcast/ARP resolution. We're using Server 2003 SP2 How do I keep this from breaking? Thanks.

Hi, Thank you for your post here. We want to segment our network by having our switches insert a dot1q tag into the Ethernet frames (layer 2, ARP) and not based on logical addresses. Could you please explain more about your topology? Do you have the clients within the same IP subnet in different VLAN? If yes, is there any cross-VLANs routing by the switch/router? The cluster operation mode is multicast, which (I believe) will break when we segment the network since they won't be able to talk via broadcast/ARP resolution. We're using Server 2003 SP2 Which VLAN does NLB nodes reside in? Do you have VLAN-aware NIC installed on the NLB nodes and configure it to join all VLANs? It will be a great benefit if you can provide the network topology illustration.

Hi, Any updates?