{"id":14004,"date":"2013-01-09T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=14004"},"modified":"2013-01-09T13:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T13:18:00","slug":"windows-server-2012-nic-teaming-part-3-switch-connection-modes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=14004","title":{"rendered":"Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 3 \u2013 Switch Connection Modes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 1 \u2013 Back To Basics<\/a><\/p>\n

Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 2 \u2013 What\u2019s What?<\/a><\/p>\n

There are 4 possible basic configurations of a NIC team, depending on your physical switches and how you want to distribute or load balance traffic across the team members of the NIC team.\u00a0 In this post, I want to focus on the switch connection modes.<\/p>\n

This configuration of the switch connection mode is determined in one of two ways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You decide how you want traffic to flow, that determines your switch architecture, and you design the team appropriately.<\/li>\n
  2. You already have a physical switch architecture, and you have to configure the team appropriately.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are two switch connection modes in a WS2012 NIC team.\u00a0 My tip: focus on the use of independent<\/em> and dependent <\/em>when trying to remember which is which.<\/p>\n

    Switch Independent<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    This type of NIC team has no dependency on functionality in the connected physical switch(es) to make the NIC team work.\u00a0 It is appropriate to use this type of NIC team in two scenarios:<\/p>\n

    1) A single dumb switch, like the sort you might get in a store for a lab<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The switch does switching and that\u2019s it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no management port or console, and no settings you can configure. The team works independently<\/em> of any non-existing functionality in the switch.<\/p>\n

    Alternatively, the team members are plugged into multiple independent<\/em> switches.\u00a0 In this case, the switches might or might not have some clever management.\u00a0 The key piece here is that each access switch is functioning completely independent of the other \u2013 there is no<\/em> switch stacking going on.<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    A nice feature of switch independent teams is that you can configure a hot-standby team member in the NIC team.\u00a0 This is only possible in a switch independent team.<\/p>\n

    Switch Dependent<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    The name says it all; the NIC team relies on some functionality in the switch(es) that the NIC team members are connected to.\u00a0 This could be a single managed switch.\u00a0 It could also be a single logical switch, such as a switch stack.<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    There are two ways to set up a switch dependent NIC team.\u00a0 Both options require you to configure the switch(es) in some way (consult your network documentation):<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Static teaming<\/li>\n
    2. LACP<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Static teaming is when the switch ports are configured to be in the same team.\u00a0 Using the above example, the switch ports for pNIC1 and pNIC2 would have to be configured to be in the same team.\u00a0 This is pretty inflexible: try reconfiguring the team or moving the cables to different switch ports and you\u2019ll break the team without doing some switch reconfiguration to match the changes.<\/p>\n

      Link Aggregation Control Protocol<\/a> (LACP) is similar to static teaming because it requires switch configuration. However, once the switch is enabled for LACP, the team dynamically configures the switch whenever it comes online or is reconfigured.\u00a0 This means that you do not need to constantly log calls for the network admins when you are doing physical server operations.<\/p>\n

      That\u2019s enough for today.\u00a0 Next up will be load distribution.<\/p>\n

      This information has been brought to you by Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation and Configuration Guide<\/a> (available on pre-order on Amazon) where you\u2019ll find lots of PowerShell like in this script:<\/p>\n

      \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 4 \u2013 Load Distribution<\/a><\/p>\n

      Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 5 \u2013 Configuration Matrix<\/a><\/p>\n

      Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2012<\/a>,Hyper-V<\/a>,Networking<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 1 \u2013 Back To Basics Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 2 \u2013 What\u2019s What? There are 4 possible basic configurations of a NIC team, depending on your physical switches and how you want to distribute or load balance traffic across the team members of the NIC team.\u00a0 In … Continue reading “Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 3 \u2013 Switch Connection Modes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[181,80,118],"class_list":["post-14004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hyper-v","tag-hyper-v","tag-networking","tag-windows-server-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t