NIC Teaming

[Bankesy]

Good morning,

 

I'm hoping that somebody can clarify whether or not I have correctly understood NIC teaming, in my real life example:

 

Got a new server with 2 x 10Gb ports and 4 x 1Gb ports (not using the 10Gb ports anyway because edge switches are only 1Gb).

 

So the 4 x 1Gb could be split into 2 NIC teams right? But that's not making 2 x 2Gb connections is it?

 

The point of NIC teaming is just for redundancy so one of the NIC teams (two cables) would have to go to one switch and the other two to another switch?

 

No point creating two NIC teams and then putting all four cables into the same switch?

 

Thanks

[JordanT91]

NIC teaming on Windows Server is also for load balancing, not just fault tolerance.

[Bankesy]

@JordanT91

 

But it's not for improvements in data transfer rates?

[Olliedawg]

Is the NIC team you are creating within windows server? You are right for maximum redundancy I believe you would have the two NIC teams going to separate switches, you can either load balance or configure one as a standby for the other NIC team

[msi_school]

@JordanT91

 

But it's not for improvements in data transfer rates?

 

If you team 2 1Gb/s NICs you will not get an increase in any single data stream above 1Gb/s but you can have 2 1Gb/s streams running at once and this obviously increases as you add more NICs.

[mavhc]

Should be able to get 2 computers to talk to the server at 2Gbps total, if they pick different paths

 

What are the settings on the switch?

[Davit2005]

I believe it is the protocol that can utilize the multiple paths, SMBv3 for instance??

 

But no adding teaming, link aggregation etc mostly is jus like having more lanes on a motorway, everyone is still doing 70MPH but more people can do it at once.

[PotNoodleTech]

The important thing to remember is that teaming does not multiply your maximum bandwidth, it just allows some of the data to be split between multiple paths.

 

So for example, if you had 4 x 1GB links you do not actually have a 4GB link, you have a 4 x 1GB link that can support 4 times the number of total connections through it. You still cant have one server and one client transfer 4gb/s through it. But 4 clients and 4 servers could transfer 1GB/s each at the same time.

[Bankesy]

@Olliedawg

 

Yes it is within Windows Server