NIC teaming allows combining multiple network adapters into a single logical interface in Windows Server 2012 R2. It provides bandwidth aggregation, redundancy in case of adapter failures, and can include adapters from different vendors. To configure NIC teaming, an administrator selects adapters to include in a team, chooses a teaming mode like switch independent or LACP, sets the load balancing mode, and can designate a standby adapter. This creates high availability and fault tolerance for the network connection.

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Network Technician / copyright 2016Done by: Fahad Al-Balushi
NIC Teaming Windows Server 2012 R2
What is NIC Teaming? A new feature in Windows Server 2012 R2, NIC team
is a collection of network interfaces that work together as one.
Benefit of NIC Teaming:
 Bandwidth aggregation.
 Redundancy, NIC teaming protects the server against NIC failures.
 NIC teaming can be implemented at the software level, so there is no need
to purchase specialized server hardware, and you can create NIC team
consisting of NICs from multiple vendors.
 NIC team can be huge, you can combine up to 32 physical NICs into a NIC
team.
Windows Server 2012 R2
Switches
Host with all interfaces connected to the same switch
Windows Server 2012 R2
Switches
Switches
We recommend to use this NIC Teaming configuration
Host with all interfaces connected to different switches

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How to configure NIC Teaming Windows Server 2012 R2?
1. Go to “Server Manager Console” and then click on “Local Server”.
2. On the “Local Server”, select “Enable NIC Teaming” to configure the
Networks.

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3. The “NIC Teaming Console” will open.
4. On “NIC Teaming Console” click on “TEAMS - TASKS - NEW
TEAM”.

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5. From “NIC Teaming Console” create “NIC Team name” then picking
the network adapters that are included in the team, then click on
“Additional properties”.
6. Additional properties include some additional options:
a) Teaming mode: there are
three different teaming
modes. 1) Switch
Independent: lets you
build a NIC team without
having to worry about
your network switches.
The NICs that make up
the team can even be connected to multiple network switches. 2)
Static Teaming: requires you to configure both the computer and the
network switch so as to identify the links that make up the team. 3)
LACP: is based on link aggregation. The advantage of this mode, is
that you can dynamically reconfigure the NIC team by adding or
removing NICs your needs dictate.

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b) Load Balancing Mode: lets
you choose between two
options: 1) Address Hash: best
choice because it allows traffic
to be load balanced across all of
the NICs in the team. 2) Hyper-V Port: assigns each virtual machines
traffic to a specific NIC. The problem is that virtual machines are
unable to take advantage of distributing traffic across multiple NICs.
c) Standby Adapter: lets you
designate a NIC as standby
spare. If a NIC in the team
were to fail, then a spare is
on hand to take over. That
you can only designate one
NIC as a standby adapter.
Windows does not support
having multiple spare adapters.
7. Set the VLAN for the new teamed interface from “Primary team
interface” windows. This is highly dependent on how the rest of your
system configured. Leaving this set to “Default” works for this example
then click “OK”

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8. After you finish creating “NIC Teaming name & additional properties”
setting click “OK” to save setting.
9. If all goes correctly, both your physical connections will indicate an active
state.

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10.You find new network adapter under “Network Connections”.
11.Go to (TCP/IPv4) and assign your IP address, subnet mask and DNS server
IP address.

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12.Go to Command prompt and ping to your server or any host IP address.
13.In case any loss connections for any reasons “NIC damage or one of
switches damage” you will not lose connections
14.Once the issue will solved the adapter will indicate an active state or go to
“TASKS” then click on “Refresh All” .

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How to delete NIC Teaming?
1. From “NIC Teaming” console under “TEAMS” then “TASKS” then
click “Delete”.
2. From below windows click “Delete Team”.

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Network Technician / copyright 2016Done by: Fahad Al-Balushi
3. The network adapter will return back to normal configuration.