IPMI dedicated LAN port VS gigabit LAN port

I was reading through the manual of the MOBO to find why it had 3 LAN ports on a 2 gigabit MOBO and it marks:-

{SomeNumberRelatingToDiagram} - IPMI LAN port

{AnotherNumber} - LAN port 1

{YetAnotherNumber} - LAN port 2

Can I ask if I need to install two LAN cables then? One for IPMI and one for local LAN? If so, it's fine, I have extra slots in my switch, it's just the fact that I don't have an extra Ethernet cable and I'd like to order them A.S.A.P. if I do need them (else I'll have to make the HTPC wireless or something along those lines).

Also, unrelated question (Kinda related, but, shhh):-

If I were to plug both LAN ports in (Gigabit ones, not IPMI), I assume I'd get two different IPs assigned by my gateway's DHCP server? If so, how would I utilize this to read/write data faster (Without doing something dodgy like copying one half of the files to one IP and the other to the other)? Not that I think I'd use 1Gbit/second, but, hey, you never know.

Yes, you need 2 LAN cables to 2 LAN ports. That is how I connected my X9SCM-F. IPMI and unraid have their own ip-address too.

Yes, you need 2 LAN cables to 2 LAN ports. That is how I connected my X9SCM-F. IPMI and unraid have their own ip-address too.

I assumed the latter, yeah, I guess I'll have to buy a couple more cat6 cables off ebay.

Thanks.

You could use one cable, IPMI will fallback to the regular lan port if nothing is connected to the management port. I believe it will only fallback to lan1 not lan2.

To your second question do a search for network bonding. There was some posts about it recently. I doubt it will show as two IP's on your router. Instead the two NICs would share a MAC address and the data is load balanced between them. At least that's the way I think it works, never tried it myself.

Yes, you need 2 LAN cables to 2 LAN ports. That is how I connected my X9SCM-F. IPMI and unraid have their own ip-address too.

 

I assumed the latter, yeah, I guess I'll have to buy a couple more cat6 cables off ebay.

 

Thanks.

Or try monoprice.com for the CAT6 cables....might be cheaper.

Yes, you need 2 LAN cables to 2 LAN ports. That is how I connected my X9SCM-F. IPMI and unraid have their own ip-address too.

 

I assumed the latter, yeah, I guess I'll have to buy a couple more cat6 cables off ebay.

 

Thanks.

 

Or try monoprice.com for the CAT6 cables....might be cheaper.

I see dollars and "2PM Pacific time" and I didn't even bother to check if they ship internationally (shipping > ebay alone, for international), I'm located in the UK, and the cables are ~ are 2GBP for 7 meters.

You could use one cable, IPMI will fallback to the regular lan port if nothing is connected to the management port. I believe it will only fallback to lan1 not lan2.

 

To your second question do a search for network bonding. There was some posts about it recently. I doubt it will show as two IP's on your router. Instead the two NICs would share a MAC address and the data is load balanced between them. At least that's the way I think it works, never tried it myself.

Looked it up, looks more trouble than it's worth. Unless I start to see issues with 1Gbit/second (Which, I really doubt I will, since the drives don't even operate that fast, with the exception of the cache drive) then I'll just leave it at 2 sockets (IPMI and 1 gigabit).

Looked it up, looks more trouble than it's worth. Unless I start to see issues with 1Gbit/second (Which, I really doubt I will, since the drives don't even operate that fast, with the exception of the cache drive) then I'll just leave it at 2 sockets (IPMI and 1 gigabit).

You made the right decision IMHO. It would only add to the complexity of your setup and something else to troubleshoot if there's a problem. Yes, 1 gigabit is more than plenty for the average home setup.