Hyper-V 2016 Server and NIC Teaming

hyper-vnetwork-teamingnicvirtualizationwindows-server-2016

I am setting up a new Hyper-V 2016 server. The physical machine has 6 network ports. I read that it is best practice to have one network port dedicated to remote management of the Hyper-V Host, so that leaves me with 5 ports. I have 2 subnets – a LAN and a DMZ. Some of the VMs that will live on this server will be in the LAN, and some will be in the DMZ.

So in the Network Adapter control panel I have the following:

  • Onboard NIC 1 10.0.0.140

  • Onboard NIC 2 10.0.0.141

  • Slot 1 Port 1 10.0.0.150

  • Slot 1 Port 2 10.0.0.151
  • Slot 1 Port 3 192.168.12.150
  • Slot 1 Port 4 192.168.12.151

I am thinking it would be best to team 2 of the NICs to be used for the LAN. Then take 2 more and use that for the DMZ.

So in Server Manager I enabled NIC Teaming and then I created 2 switch-independent dynamic Teams, as follows:

Slot 1 Port 1 \
               |---- LAN   10.0.0.152
Slot 1 Port 2 /



Slot 1 Port 3 \
               |---- DMZ   192.168.12.152
Slot 1 Port 4 /

After creating the teams, The 4 individual NICs are in a sense no longer used. IPv4 is unchecked in each of their Properties windows, and they are part of the team.

First question:

  1. Can I re-use the IPs I had manually assigned to these 4 NICs? Are are they still necessary? (I am not hurting for IPs. I am just curious if they are now available to me as long as those NICs are part of a Team)

Next, I am going to install the Hyper-V role.
During the installation of Hyper-V, the wizard says "One virtual switch will be created for each network adapter you select". In the list, I see the 2 teams I created ("LAN" and "DMZ") but interestingly I ALSO see the individual NICs here in the list.

  1. Why would the individual NICs appear here? If I select them and the wizard creates a virtual switch, does my NIC team break?

  2. Should I select the teamed NICs only?

  3. So later on let's say I create my first hyper-v vm, assign the teamed NIC called 'LAN' to it, and install Windows. When I log into that VM, I assume I will only have one network adapter. But is the throughput of this adapter "teamed" meaning 2gb instead of 1gb?

…or…
Should I NOT team the NICs on the Hyper-V host, and INSTEAD, assign the same 2 NICs to each VM and then inside the VM, do the teaming?

What's the best practice way to take advantage of multiple NICs on a physical host so that each of the VMs get the maximum network throughput? Team the NICs on the Hyper-V Host? Or instead, team the NICs inside of each VM?

Best Answer

  1. Yes, IPs can be re-used.

  2. The team will not break if you create vSwitch manually (just keep in mind to double check MAC addresses on the teamed adapter and newly created vSwitch. I had them duplicated a couple of times for whatever reason). As for the wizard, I'm unsure and I do not recommend using it in your case. Hyper-V simply scans all network adapters including teamed NICs that's why you see them. This is almost the same as running "Get-NetAdapter" in PowerShell.

  3. Yes, if you want to present the teamed network as the virtual switch, you must select the teamed adapter.

  4. It will be shown as 10GbE. Speaking of throughput, your mileage may vary. The teamed network will almost never give you x2 x3 x"N" performance in the typical point-to-point data transfer operation. Teaming networks helps to increase the maximum "pipe" width for those cases when you have multiple clients connecting to a single SMB share, folder, etc.

  5. Here is some useful reading: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/plan/plan-hyper-v-networking-in-windows-server

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