Working with NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012

Among the many networking features introduced in Hyper -V 3.0 in Windows Server 2012 , many have been added to enhance the overall capacity of the machines in the creation of a virtual network elements introduced in Hyper -V 3.0 is a set of components for configuring NIC teaming virtual machines and the Windows operating system.

Originally designed for Windows Server 2012 , NIC Teaming can also be used to configure the adapters into teams for Hyper -V. Since our primary goal in this article is to provide an overview of the NIC teaming in later versions of Windows Server 2012 and will not cover in detail the steps required to configure NIC teaming for operating systems and virtual machines .

In previous versions of Hyper -V (version 1.0 and version 2.0 ), the Windows operating system does not provide any utility to configure NIC teaming for physical network adapters , and it was not possible to configure NIC teaming for the virtual machines . A Windows administrator can configure NIC teaming in Windows using third-party utilities , but with the following disadvantages

• Microsoft's teaming protocol can be used to team network adapters of different vendors.
• It is recommended to always use the same physical network adapter with the same configuration, including configuration speed, drivers, and other network functionality, when setting up NIC Teaming between two physical network adapters.
• NIC teaming is a feature of Windows Server, so it can be used for any network traffic, including virtual machine networking traffic.
• NIC teaming is set up at the hardware level .
• By default, a Windows Server can team up to 32 physical network adapters.
• Only two physical network adapters in teaming can be assigned to a virtual machine. In other words, a network teamed adapter cannot be attached to a virtual machine if it contains more than two physical network adapters.
• NIC Teaming can only be configured if there are two or more 1 GB or two or more 10 GB physical network adapters.
• Teamed network adapters will appear in the "External Network" configuration page of Virtual Machine settings.

• NIC Teaming can also be referred to as NIC bonding, load balancing and failover or LBFO.

How Does NIC Teaming Work?

Microsoft developers have designed a new protocol for NIC Teaming specifically. The new protocol, known as Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor, assists in routing packets from physical network adapters to NIC teaming adapters and vice versa. This protocol is responsible for diverting the traffic from a teamed adapter to the physical NIC. The protocol is installed by default as part of the physical network adapter initialization for the first time.

 
The Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor protocol is checked in the teamed network adapter and unchecked in the physical network adapters that are part of the NIC Teaming. For example, if there are two physical network adapters in a team, the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor protocol will be disabled for these two physical network adapters and checked in the teamed adapter as shown in the below screenshot:

As shown in the above screenshot, the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor protocol is unchecked in the properties section of the Physical Network Adapter named "PNIC5," and the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor protocol is checked in the property of "Hyper-VTeaming" teamed network adapter. "HyperVTeaming" is a teamed network adapter.

Any network traffic generated from the teamed adapter will be received by one of the physical NICs participating in the Teaming. The teamed adapter talks to the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor protocol bound in the physical NIC.

If this protocol is unchecked in one of the physical network adapters, then the Teamed adapter will not be able to communicate with the physical network adapters participating in the Teaming. Third-party teaming utilities might have a different protocol designed for this, but the one offered by Microsoft can be used with any vendor network card — so this protocol is vendor- and network adapter-independent.