I want to quickly write about creating NIC teams on Windows Server 2012 R2 Cluster hosts for virtual machine access to the public network. There are a number of parameters to consider when creating a NIC team on this platform, but the two primary parameters for me are :

1) Teaming Mode: I selected the Switch Independent mode. PowerShell Help describes this mode as when a network switch configuration is not needed for the NIC team. Because the network switch is not configured to know about the interface teaming, the team interfaces can be connected to different switches.

2) Load Balancing Algorithm: I selected the Dynamic option. According the PowerShell Help, this option uses the source and destination TCP ports and the IP addresses to create a hash for outbound traffic. Moves outbound streams from team member to team member as needed to balance team member utilization. When you specify this algorithm with the TeamingMode parameter and the SwitchIndependent value, inbound traffic is routed to a particular team member.

I started by enumerating the network adapters on the server using the Get-NetIPInterface cmdlet and displaying the ipv4 addresses:

Create the NIC Team, initially using one network adapter:

I observed that the initial status after the Team creation is down. After a few seconds, this changes to Up as indicated in the following screen shot:

The Get-NetLbfoTeamNic cmdlet displays details about the NIC Team :

The interface description for the NICTeam adapter is Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Driver. The Get-NetIPInterface shows the addition of a new Team network adapter:

I decided to add a second Network Adapter to the NIC Team:

The screen shot above, shows how the NIC Team status changes from “Physical Media Disconnected” to “Degraded” to Up after a few seconds of adding a second NIC to the NIC Team. Using the Get-NetlbfoTeamNic cmdlet displays the new values for the Recieve and Transmit link speed as an aggregate of both network adapters’ link speed.

There’s a few more options, parameter values that could be considered when creating a NIC Team on Windows Server 2012 R2. The PowerShell context Help has a lot of content to enable anyone make an informed decision when designing and configuring NIC Teams for any set of IT infrastructure objectives.