NIC Teaming

Microsoft has natively supported NIC teaming, or the ability to combine multiple NICs as a single NIC, since Windows Server 2012. Prior to that, teaming was achieved with proprietary software and did not always work well with features like a WSFC. Teaming can enhance both performance and availability depending on the configuration if employed. To understand the teaming in Windows Server, reference “Windows Supported Networking Scenarios” at Microsoft Learn.

There are two types of teaming:

● Switch independent – This type is independent of the network switch.

● Switch dependent – This type requires a network switch configuration. Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is a core aspect of switch dependent. This means LACP must be configured on the physical switch. Consult the switch vendor’s documentation for information on how to achieve this task.

For Windows Server 2016 and above, Switch Embedded Teaming (SET) is recommended to be enabled for Hyper-V hosts. SET was introduced with Windows Server and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2016 as a new method to simplify the teaming of multiple network adapters. SET is managed at the Hyper-V switch level and not at a network team level. Physical NIC teaming is no longer required to allow more concurrent traffic across multiple network adapters. SET is specifically integrated with Packet Direct, Converged RDMA vNICs, and software defined networking (SDN) quality of service (QoS) configurations. SET can be enabled within SCVMM by configuring a logical switch with an embedded team uplink mode.

Examples of enabling SET using PowerShell on a vSwitch are below. Change the names of your network adapters to match your hardware.