How to use NIC teaming in Windows Server 2012

NIC teaming is one of the many network features introduced in Windows Server-Hyper-V 3.0. The NIC teaming was originally designed for Windows Server 2012 and can now be used to configure a bound adapter for Hyper-V virtual machines.

This article mainly describes how to configure NIC teaming on Windows Server 2012 or later. Of course, Windows administrators can use Third-party tools to configure NIC teaming on Windows with the following drawbacks:

Vendor support, not Microsoft.

You can only configure NIC teaming between physical network adapters from the same manufacturer.

If you have multiple bindings configured, each Third-party network binding has a separate admin UI.

Most third-party cooperation solutions do not have a remote configuration binding option.

With the start of Windows Server 3.0 Hyper-V, you can easily configure the NIC teaming for the virtual machine.

Conditions for configuring NIC teaming for a virtual machine

Before configuring the NIC teaming for a virtual machine, ensure that the following conditions are true:

The client operating system of the virtual machine must be running at least the version of Windows Server 2012.

The available physical network adapters are joined to the NIC teaming.

If the network card group needs to configure a VLAN number, determine the VLAN number.

NIC teaming configuration principles and considerations

You need to follow some guidelines when configuring NIC teaming, and remember some considerations, as follows:

Microsoft uses the Microsoft Network Adapter MULTIPLEXOR protocol to help NIC teaming build without the use of third-party tools.

Microsoft's binding protocol can be used to bind different vendors ' network adapters.

When configuring NIC teaming for two physical network adapters, it is recommended that you use the same configuration for the same network adapter, including configuration speed, drivers, and other network features.

NIC teaming is a Windows Server feature, so it can be used for any network traffic, including virtual machine network traffic.

The NIC teaming is built on top of the hardware (physical network card).

By default, a single Windows Server can bind up to 32 physical network adapters.

Only two physical network adapter bindings can be assigned to a virtual machine. In other words, if you have more than two bound physical network adapters, you will not be able to attach to the virtual machine.

NIC teaming can be configured as long as there are two or two more 1GB or 10GB physical network adapters.

The bound network adapter appears in the External network Configuration page of the virtual machine settings.

NIC teaming can also be called NIC bindings, load balancing and failover, or LBFO.

How does NIC teaming work?

Microsoft developers specifically designed a new protocol for NIC teaming, the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor, which assists in routing packets from physical network adapters to bound adapters, and vice versa. This protocol is responsible for transferring traffic between the bound adapter and the physical network card. The protocol is initialized with the physical network adapter by default.

The Microsoft network Adapter MULTIPLEXOR Protocol is valid for a bound network adapter and is not valid for the physical network adapter. For example, if you have two physical network adapters in a group, the Microsoft network Adapter multiplexor Protocol is not valid for both physical network adapters, but it appears in the binding adapter, as shown in the screenshot below:

NIC teaming in Windows Server 2012

As shown in the figure, the Microsoft network Adapter multiplexor protocol does not appear in the properties of the physical network adapter "PNIC5" and is displayed in the properties of the bound network adapter "hyper-vteaming".

All network traffic generated by the bound adapter is received by one of the physical network adapters participating in the teaming. The bound adapter communicates with the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor protocol that binds the physical network card.

If the protocol for any one of the physical network adapters fails, the bound adapter will not be able to communicate with the physical network adapter in teaming. The Third-party binding tool has a protocol for this issue, but the Microsoft protocol can be used for any other vendor's network card, so the protocol and NIC are not locked by the vendor.