NIC Teaming
I have two NIC’s on a Windows 2003 R2 Storage server that I would like to team them together. How do I do this? It doesn’t look like NVidia has any teaming drivers for my NIC’s. Is there another way or do I just have two NIC’s plugged in with two different static IP’s but it doesn’t like when you have two of the same gateways when I try this. Any suggestions will greatly be appreciated.
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Ok. If I don’t team the networks then do I just leave NIC #2 unplugged or is there a way to set up NIC #2 without having issues?
If you are not going to team them, then you can either unplug the second NIC or disable it in the OS. Teaming is an option, and works well if done correctly. I just want you to understand that it is third party dependent.
DrUltima
DrUltima
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If you do not team the two NIC, you could configure a different IP address per Nic, and let the DNS on your network roundrobin the trafic between the two interfaces, like you've done...
But this kind of configuration will not be really efficient... you could roundrobin incoming trafic initiated from other computers trough DNS, but you will not roundrobin the trafic originated from your computer... Windows will use the first available interface, meaning allways the same. But it could be used as a failover for the trafic initiated from the computer...
Thus, you should think about the purpose of the computer : is it a server or a workstation ? Two IP's for a server on two nics could be usefull to increase the bandwidth (at least a few), on a workstation for a failover.
But this kind of configuration will not be really efficient... you could roundrobin incoming trafic initiated from other computers trough DNS, but you will not roundrobin the trafic originated from your computer... Windows will use the first available interface, meaning allways the same. But it could be used as a failover for the trafic initiated from the computer...
Thus, you should think about the purpose of the computer : is it a server or a workstation ? Two IP's for a server on two nics could be usefull to increase the bandwidth (at least a few), on a workstation for a failover.
If you still want to do it then you have to have cards and drivers that support teaming - nothing else will do