NIC teaming

[fitzie22]

I have recently started at a new company and am going through there configuration and on all servers there is a virtual switch that is setup with 2 physical nics. But the only thing checked off under the nic teaming tab of port group properties is "Network Failover Detection" and it is set to "link Status Only". Now I know that it is not loadbalanced but does this mean that it is setup so that if one of the physical nics is unplugged the other will pick up the load?

[gary1012]

Load balancing and Network Failover Detection are two different things. Load balancing uses multiple NICs to distribute load based on originating port ID, IP hash, MAC hash or explicit failover. NFD only detects link state failures. If the link state fails, the vswitch knows enough not to send packets to a disable/unplugged Ethernet card.

I don't know if I'm following you, but is this what you need to know?

[fitzie22]

Kind of. If you can look at the attached pic. If you saw that pic what would say in explaining what fault tolerance we have. i.e if one cable was unplgged

[fitzie22]

Kind of, If you look at the attached pic, and had to explain how it is currently setup what would you say. I.E if one cable was unplugged then XXX would happen

[fitzie22]

Kind of, If you look at the attached pic, and had to explain how it is currently setup what would you say. I.E if one cable was unplugged then XXX would happen

[gary1012]

This pic looks like you're looking at the port group based on the inherited settings... Irregardless, you're load balancing over vmnic2 and vmnic3. If someone pulls the cable on vmnic2, the link state will go down and all traffic will go out vmnic3.

[fitzie22]

Excellent that is perfect. one last thing though, when you say "port group based on the inherited settings" how do I find out where that it inherrited from?

[gary1012 · Accepted solution]

Yeah, it's under the network configuration. Select properties and that will default to the port tab. Under the configuration column you'll see virtual switch and any port groups you created. Highlight vSwitch and select Edit. Go to the NIC Teaming tab. This is the top-level configuration for the vswitch. Anything set here will cascade down to the port groups.

[fitzie22]

Excellent , thanks for the info