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Server NIC teaming

If you have more than 1 NIC on the server, we recommend teaming them so that you will get the maximum throughput from your server to clients. When teaming the NICs, choose "Adaptive Load Balancing" to use all available network bandwidth.

When you have more than 20-30 clients, it is recommended that you use two or more NICs. So, to use them with one IP address, you need to team them. Here is how you can do it.

For Windows server 2012 R2 and above:

Refer Setting up NIC Teaming for Windows Server 2012*/2012 R2*/2016* video for teaming steps.

For Windows 7, Windows server 2008 and windows 10

Teaming on windows 10 is working on Intel drivers until the version 22.01, but this version has been deleted from the Intel site. Therefore, teaming is not working on windows 10 anymore.

In windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, you need to have at least one Intel NIC to be able to team your NICs.

If you do not have Intel NIC then you need to use Windows Server 2012 as it has native NIC teaming and does not rely on Intel Adapter.

Before you team your NIC, please optimize all of the NICs that will be in the team. You will not be able to optimize them individually once they are teamed.

  1. Right click on your “Intel NIC” network  and click the properties (Figure 1).

Figure 1

  1. On the NIC properties window, click the “Configure” button (Figure 2).

Figure 2

  1. Now click the "Teaming" tab and check the "Team this adapter with other adapters" checkbox and click the "New Team..." button (Figure 3).

Figure 3

  1. New Team Wizard will open, type a name for the new team and click the "Next" button (Figure 4).

Figure 4

  1. You will be prompted to select the NICs that will be part of the team. Check the NICs you want and then click the "Next" button (Figure 5).

Figure 5

  1. Now you need to choose the type of teaming you want to use. Select "Adaptive Load Balancing" (as it uses the bandwidth of all NICs, and if one of the NIC fails, the team will still work with reduced speed) and click the "Next" button (Figure 6).

Figure 6

  1.  Click the "Finish" button and wait for the process to complete (Figure 7).

Figure 7

  1. Once a team is created, its properties will open. Optimize the new Teamed NIC like other NICs.

  1. You also need to set the static IP for the team.

  1. Once the IP has been set you need to change the "Boot Server IP" on the CCBoot DHCP (In new versions, this will be automatically done).

Things to keep in mind in teaming

  1. If your teaming is not showing full speed - example 4 x 1gbps = 4gbps  but shows 3.0 gbps, this means one of the NIC cable is not working.

You need to replace the cable or re-crimp a new RJ45 jack to the cable.

  1. If your teaming fails to complete, then uninstall the Intel driver and reinstall it and try to team again. Always install the latest NIC drivers before attempting to team the NICs.

  1. For teaming to work in Windows 2008, Windows 7 or Windows 10, You need to have at least 1 Intel NIC otherwise you won't be able to team the NICs.

  1. If you are using Windows Server 2012 R2 or higher, then you can natively team the NICs from the Server manager. Refer to How to configure NIC Teaming on Windows Server 2012