Hello - we have noticed that when we bind our 4 ports together to achieve 4GB speed on our Server 2016, and then perform a speed test with a network utility, that the results are slower for some reason. Are there settings or some type of trick to allowing for faster speed to actually be achieved through a binded network interface?
What you mean is called "trunking". You won't achieve any speed improvement against a single target - most trunking techniques allow for one target, one NIC paths only.
Depending on how the trunk is configured at both server and switch, management overhead might reduce the performance for a single target.
You should see a performance improvement if you test against more than one (max. 4) targets simultanously.
Oh - yes correct, NIC teaming is what I'm referring to. Ok - so it sounds like it is more of a load balancing and failover measure, and not a performance booster. Sean mentioned seeing improvement with multiple targets. Could that also apply to multiple users hitting the SQL Server simultaneously for data requests? So if 4 NICs are in the TEAM, then those 4 requests could be served simultaneously at full speed?
Depending on how the trunk is configured at both server and switch, management overhead might reduce the performance for a single target.
You should see a performance improvement if you test against more than one (max. 4) targets simultanously.