NIC Teaming means you are grouping two or more physical NIC (network interface controller card) and it will act as a single NICs. You may call it as a Virtual NICs. The minimum number of NICs which can be grouped (Teamed) is Two and the maximum number of NICs which you can group is Eight.
HP Servers are equipped with Redundant Power Supply, Fan, Hard drive (RAID) etc. As we have redundant hardware components installed on same server, the server will be available to its users even if one of the above said components fails. In the similar manner, by doing NIC Teaming (Network Teaming), we can achieve Network Fault tolerance and Load balancing on your HP Proliant Server.
HP Proliant Network Adapter Teaming (NIC Teaming) allows Server administrator to configure Network Adapter, Port, Network cable and switch level redundancy and fault tolerance. Server NIC Teaming will also allows Receive Load balancing and Transmit Load balancing. Once you configure NIC teaming on a server, the server connectivity will not be affected when Network adapter fails, Network Cable disconnects or Switch failure happens.
To create NIC Teaming in Windows 2008/2003 Operating System, we need to use the HP Network Configuration Utility. This utility is available for download at Driver & Download page of your HP Server (HP.com). Please install the latest version of Network card drivers before you install the HP Network Configuration Utility. In Linux, Teaming (NIC Bonding) function is already available and there is no HP tools which you need to use to configure it. This article will focus only on Windows based NIC teaming.
HP Network Configuration Utility (HP NCU) is a very easy-to-use tool available for Windows Operating System. HP NCU allows you to configure different types of Network Team, here are the few:
1. Network Fault Tolerance Only (NFT)
2. Network Fault Tolerance Only with Preference Order
3. Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB)
4. Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order
5. Switch-assisted Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (SLB)
6. 802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance
Network Fault Tolerance Only (NFT)
In NFT team, you can group two to eight NIC ports and it will act as one virtual network adapter. In NFT, only one NIC port will transmit and receive data and its called as primary NIC. Remaining adapters are non-primary and will not participate in receive and transmit of data. So if you group 8 NICs and create a NFT Team, then only 1 NIC will transmit and receive data, remaining 7 NICs will be in standby mode. If the primary NIC fails, then next available NIC will be treated as Primary, and will continue the transmit and receive of data. NFT supports switch level redundancy by allowing the teamed ports to be connected to more than one switch in the same LAN.
Network Fault Tolerance Only with Preference Order:
This mode is identical to NFT, however here you can select which NIC is Primary NIC. You can configure NIC Priority in HP Network Configuration Utility. This team type allows System Administrator to prioritize the order in which teamed ports should failover if any Network failure happens. This team supports switch level redundancy.
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (TLB):
TLB supports load balancing (transmit only). The primary NIC is responsible for receiving all traffic destined for the server, however remaining adapters will participate in transmission of data. Please note that Primary NIC will do both transmit and receive while rest of the NIC will perform only transmission of data. In simpler words, when TLB is configured, all NICs will transmit the data but only the primary NIC will do both transmit and receive operation. So if you group 8 NICs and create a TLB Team, then only 1 NIC will transmit and receive data, remaining 7 NICs will perform transmission of data. TLB supports switch level redundancy.
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance and Preference Order:
This model is identical to TLB, however you can select which one is the Primary NIC. This option will help System Administrator to design network in such a way that one of the teamed NIC port is more preferred than other NIC port in the same team. This model also supports switch level redundancy.
Switch-assisted Load Balancing with Fault Tolerance (SLB):
SLB allows full transmit and receive load balancing. In this team, all the NICs will transmit and receive data hence you have both transmit and receive load balancing. So if you group 8 NICs and create a SLB Team, all the 8 NICs will transmit and receive data. However, SLB does not support Switch level redundancy as we have to connect all the teamed NIC ports to the same switch. Please note that SLB is not supported on all switches as it requires Ether Channel, MultiLink Trunking etc.
802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance
This team is identical to SLB except that the switch must support IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Protocol (LACP). The main advantage of 802.3ad is that you do not have to manually configure your switch. 802.3ad does not support Switch level redundancy but allows full transmit and receive load balancing.
How to team NICs on HP Proliant Server:
To configure NIC teaming on your Windows based HP Proliant Server, you need to download HP Network Configuration Utility (HP NCU). This utility is available for download at HP.com. Once you download and install NCU, please open it. To know how to open NCU on your HP Server, please check my guide provided below.
Guide: Different ways to open HP NCU on your server
If you are using Windows 2012 Server Operating System on your HP Server, then you could not use HP Network Configuration Utility. We need to use the inbuilt network team software of Windows here. Please check the below provided article about Windows 2012 Network team to learn more.
Guide: NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012
Let us continue with our Windows 2008/2003 based HP NCU here. Once you open NCU, you will find all the installed network cards are listed in it. As you can find from below provided screenshot, we have 4 NICs installed. Here, we will team first two NICs in NFT mode.
Let’s start
1. The HP Network Configuration Utility Properties window will look like the one provided below.
2. Select 2 NICs by clicking on it and then click Team button.
3. HP Network Team #1 will be created as shown below.
4. Select HP Network Team #1 and click on Properties button to change team properties
5. The Team Properties Window will open now.
6. Here you can select the type of NIC team you want to implement (See below screenshot).
7. Here, I will select NFT from the Team Type Selection drop down list.
8. Click OK once you selected the desired Team type.
9. Now you will be at below provided screen now. Click OK to close HP NCU.
10. You will receive confirmation window prompting you to save changes, Click Yes.
11. HP NCU will configure NIC teaming now, the screen may look like the one provided below.
12. This may take some time, once Teaming is done, below provided window will be shown.
13. Open HP NCU, you could find that HP Network Team is in Green color. Congrats
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Having spent the last few days battling with the HP Network Configuration Utility (HP NCU) Microsoft’s decision to do away with the need for third party NIC teaming software is a very welcome addition of Server 2012.
Microsoft have never officially supported NIC teaming for Hyper-V (if you had problems and needed to talk to Microsoft support, more than likely you would have to dissolve the team before you could progress your support call too far). I have seen many network related Hyper-V issues that have boiled down to either be NIC driver or a third party teaming utility not playing nicely.
Built in NIC teaming has been a long requested feature, VMWare have had NIC teaming for a while so it’s no great surprise Microsoft have decided to include it. A great feature of this teaming solution is that you will be able to take a NIC from any manufacturer and team them e.g. I could team an Intel and a Broadcom card into a single team. This gives you some great redundancy advantages – if you upgrade the Intel driver and it stops working, no problem the Broadcom can keep the team up and running.
Creating a team is simple – just go to the Server Manager > Locate the teaming link under server properties and follow the very easy wizard.
Next just select the NIC ports you wanted to be included in the team (you can have a whopping 32 ports per team – using LBFO I could have 32 x 10Gb ports (although that would come in at a hefty price) simply having 32x 1Gb ports allows for some extreme bandwidth! This will be very useful for networks such as the live migration, especially as now you can have simultaneous migration happening at once.
Next give your new team a name and off you go. There are a few more additional options you can set, such as:
Team Mode:
Static Teaming: This mode is supported by most server-class switches. As the name suggests this is a manual configuration on the switch and server to form the teams.
Switch Independent: You don’t need to tell the switch anything or connect to different switches – although you can (and should) for better redundancy.
LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol): This will dynamically identify the links between the server and the switch. This will allow for the automatic creating of a team. LACP could also expand or reduce the number of NICs in the team.
Load Balancing Mode:
Hyper-V Port: The switch will balance the traffic on multiple links, based on the destination MAC address for the virtual machine.
Address Hash: This is a simple algorithm approach. Based in the components of the packet it creates a hash, it then sends packets with that hash to one of the available NICs.
Stand-by Adaptor: The name says it all – but you can have an active, active or active passive set-up by selecting the NIC you want to be waiting in the wings in case one of the active ports runs into problems.
Once the team has been created you can easily add or remove ports as required. You will see your newly created team in your adaptor settings of the ‘Network & Sharing Center’ as you would any other adaptor and this is where you can set your IP addressing requirements.
Obviously all this can also be achieved with PowerShell using the module ‘Netlbfo’
PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-Command -Module Netlbfo
CommandType Name
Function Add-NetLbfoTeamMember
Function Add-NetLbfoTeamNic
Function Get-NetLbfoTeam
Function Get-NetLbfoTeamMember
Function Get-NetLbfoTeamNic
Function New-NetLbfoTeam
Function Remove-NetLbfoTeam
Function Remove-NetLbfoTeamMember
Function Remove-NetLbfoTeamNic
Function Rename-NetLbfoTeam
Function Set-NetLbfoTeam
Function Set-NetLbfoTeamMember
Function Set-NetLbfoTeamNic
To create your team:
New-NetLbfoTeam -Name “ProductionTeam1” -TeamMembers LAN04,LAN02,LAN03 -TeamingMode Static
PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-NetLbfoTeam
Name : Production Team 1
Members : {Ethernet 4, Ethernet 3, Ethernet 2}
TeamNics : Production Team 1
TeamingMode : SwitchIndependent
LoadBalancingAlgorithm : TransportPorts
Status : Down
One VERY cool feature is that all of this will also work within a virtual machine! This will mean that a VM will be able to be connected to more than one virtual switch. This will provide great redundancy all the way though the network layer from physical switch through to VM.
I think this is a great new feature for Windows Server 2012 and I’m sure many people will be recreating their teams with this ASAP and uninstalling their 3rd party vendor applications.
I was pretty confused when I was trying to configure NIC teaming first time on server with Windows Server 2012 R2 installed.
Server has Intel 331 4Port NIC and no sign of HP Network Configuration Utility or Intel configuration utility. Even after installing latest Intel Network adapter drivers and software no sign of teaming utility that was usually in Properties of NIC.
But, there is solution from Microsoft and Windows Server itself.
Server Manager |Local Server | under Properties on right screen find option NIC Teaming and click on Disabled to Enable it
When you click on NIC Teaming Disabled – new window will open in which you can configure NIC Teaming. I`ll choose two network cards, right click on them and then choose Add to New Team
Under Team name: choose name for NIC Team, under Member Adapters: verify once again NICs you chose and under Additional properties you can define Teaming mode, Load Balancing mode and Standby adapter, define everything by your needs and click on OK when finished
To help you a bit with Additional properties I will explain in short major options:
Teaming Mode:
Switch Independent: – This configuration does not require the switch to participate in the teaming. Since in switch-independent mode the switch does not know that the network adapter is part of a team in the host, the adapters may be connected to different switches. Switch independent modes of operation do not require that the team members connect to different switches; they merely make it possible.
Switch Dependent: This configuration requires the switch to participate in the teaming. Switch dependent teaming requires all the members of the team to be connected to the same physical switch.
There are two modes of operation for switch-dependent teaming:
LACP: – network switch supports the Link Aggregation Control Protocol ( 802.1ax) for dynamic link aggregation.
Static: – network switch doesn’t support LACP and needs a static link aggregation configuration
Load balancing mode:
Address Hash: In switch independent mode Load balancing goes across all adapters for outbound traffic, but inbound traffic uses only one NIC of the Team.
In switched mode Address Hash know how to balance both inbound and outbound traffic. Switched mode (see above for switched modes) is great for heavy traffic both in physical and virtual environment.
Hyper-V Port: – If you are running multiple VMs in Hyper-V this type of load balancing is preferred. This mode is great in situations where you have multiple VMs on your host, but none of them has heavy load and exceeds bandwidth of one NIC in a team.
For more detailed explanation of every option this is great source – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40319
After you defined Teaming if you go to Control Panel |Network and Sharing Center from left menu choose Change adapter settings you`ll see all your network adapters and created NIC Team
That`s it, Teaming done.
Disclaimer
How do I install HP Network Configuration Utility?
Go to the Control Panel. Right click “HP Network Configuration Utility” (NCU), select Run as Administrator. Select the Team that you want to add a NIC to. Select the NIC(s) that you want to add to the Team.
How do I find my HP iLO server IP?
During the HP server boot process, press the F9 key to access the system utilities.
- Select the System Configuration option.
- On the next screen, select the iLo Configuration Utility.
- Select the Network Options entry.
- On this screen, you will be find out the HP iLo interface IP address.
How do I change my IP address on iLO?
From the iLO RBSU screen, select network→DNS/DHCP, and then press Enter….Configuring a static IP address (iLO RBSU)
- To set DHCP Enable to OFF, press the spacebar, and then press F10 to save the changes.
- Select DHCP Enable.
- To set DHCP Enable to OFF, press the spacebar, and then press F10 to save the changes.
What is the latest HP ProLiant server?
Meet our newest servers: the HPE ProLiant DL365 Gen10 Plus and the HPE ProLiant DL345 Gen10 Plus. From your Virtualization and Security requirements to Real-time Decision Making for your data intensive workloads – we’ve got you covered.
How do I open network configuration utility?
Click Windows Start, Programs, and WLAN Access Point Utility to launch the Access Point Configuration Utility. Click AP in the toolbar and then click Scan. To access the Access Point Web Configurator, double-click the name of the correct Access Point in the list.
How do I connect to my HP iLO server?
- Start the Remote Console application by typing the IP address of the ILOM service processor into a browser on the remote system.
- Click Yes.
- Enter the user name and password, and click Log In.
- Click the Remote Control tab in the ILOM web interface.
- Set the mouse mode to Absolute mode in the Mouse Mode Settings tab.
How do I access iLO web interface?
You can access the HPE iLO web interface by using your existing HPE iLO account information, or by using the IP address available on the server screen during POST and the username and password located on the HPE iLO Default Network Settings tag with the server (this HPE iLO Default Network Settings tag also contains …
What is the difference between HP ProLiant ML and DL servers?
The main difference is that the DL line is “density optimized” meaning that they are smaller, which usually means that they have less expansion – like fewer PCI slots and fewer drive bays. The DL line usually has an integratde Smart 5i/6i controller, where the ML line usually does not.
How do I log into my network configuration utility?
To open the web-based configuration utility: Open a Web browser. Enter the IP address of the WAP device that you are configuring in the address bar on the browser, and then press Enter. The Login page opens.
What is network configuration Utility?
The Network Configuration Utility (NCU) configures a system’s Network Interface Card (NIC), TCP/IP settings, and domain information for use in Recovery Environment. Note: The PE Network Manager provides a comprehensive set of network options. However, most Recovery Environment scenarios work with the default settings.
What is the HP ProLiant Gen9 server user guide?
HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 Server User Guide Abstract This document is for the person who installs, administers, and troubleshoots servers and storage systems. HP assumes you are qualified in the servicing of computer equipment and trained in recognizing hazards in products with hazardous energy levels.
How to install a ProLiant dl380 Gen9 server?
Operations Power up the server Power down the server Extend the server from the rack Remove the server from the rack Remove the access panel Install the access panel Accessing the rear panel Opening the cable management arm Remove the fan cage Remove the hot-plug fan Remove the PCI riser cage Install the PCI riser cage
What is part number of HP ProLiant dl360 server user guide?
This document is for the person who installs, administers, and troubleshoots servers and storage systems. HP assumes you are qualified in the servicing of computer equipment and trained in recognizing hazards in products with hazardous energy levels. Part Number: 767927-001 September 2014 Edition: 1
Is the HP ACU compatible with dl380 Gen9?
I have DL380 Gen9 installed via Provisioning with Windows Server 2012. The RAID array has been created during provisioning. I have also downloaded the latest HP ACU (9.40.12.0) and installed it.
HP Servers by default comes with ‘HP Network Configuration Utility’ that helps to team 2 NIC cards which helps network card redundancy. When we install new HP server model, a CD that helps to install all the required Hardware and Software stuff from that Vendor CD that includes Firmware and PSP pack.
Some time the System Admins would face a problem with HP Network Config utility found in hang state or not responding state that requires a re-installation of the same. Here goes the steps how to uninstall the HP Network Configuration utility from the server –
To uninstall the HP Network Configuration Utility, please follow the below steps –
Go to Windows Start Button –> Settings –> Network Connections.
Right click on one of the network card (NIC card) and select Properties.
Under “this connection uses the following items”, select the HP Network Configuration Utility and click uninstall as shown in the below captured screenshot –
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