The NCU supports a maximum of 8 ports in a
team on 1Gb and 10Gb adapters. However, it is recommended that you
team a maximum of only 4 ports with at least 4Gb of RAM on 10Gb
adapters.
Only the following team types are supported
on FlexNIC-enabled adapters.
Network Fault Tolerance (NFT)
Network Fault Tolerance with Preference
Order (NFT-PO)
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault
Tolerance (TLB)
Transmit Load Balancing with Fault
Tolerance and Preference Order (TLB-PO)
The NCU supports two or more FlexNIC-enabled
adapters on the same port to be members of the same team.
Any changes to a teaming configuration that
has an iSCSI-booted device present requires a system reboot.
In Transmit Load Balancing, Switch-assisted
Load Balancing, and 802.3ad with Fault Tolerance teams, the
adapters must be capable of a common speed. If you try to add an
adapter to one of these existing team types and that adapter is not
capable of a common speed with the other adapters in the team then
the team option is disabled.
All server adapters in a team must be on the
same broadcast domain.
To ensure proper network functioning, be
sure the protocol information for each teamed server adapter is
complete. Do not depend on a DHCP server to assign an IP Address as
the results may be undependable. Be sure that you have properly
configured the protocols for the Virtual Miniport that represents
the team. To do this on Windows systems, go to Network Connections
to select the Virtual Miniport and then select File>Properties.
If the properties of the server adapters are
not supported by all team members, those properties may be disabled
for all the adapters in the team. The NCU displays a message
listing the properties that have been disabled.
TOE teaming
limitations
The following are limitations for a TOE-enabled
team:
TOE and RSS teaming are not supported on
Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 x64 in this
release.
For systems running Windows Server 2003
(SP1) or Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP1), you must upgrade to Service
Pack 2 or later.
TOE teaming performance is reduced if a
switch or network device is configured with the round robin
aggregation load balancing method. Configure the aggregation load
balancing method on the switch or network device to something else
other than round robin and then re-start the team (disable the team
and enable the team for all VLANs).
TOE will not work with the following
features enabled: Windows Firewall; Internet Protocol security
(IPsec); Internet Protocol Network Address Translation (IPNAT);
third-party firewalls; and NDIS 5.1 intermediate drivers. Download
article number KB912222 from the Microsoft website for more
information.
RSS teaming
limitations
The following are limitations for a TOE-enabled
team:
TOE and RSS teaming are not supported on
Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 x64 in this
release.
For systems running Windows Server 2003
(SP1) or Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP1), you must upgrade to Service
Pack 2 or later.
iSCSI teaming
limitations
The following team types are not supported
for iSCSI-enabled adapters. Disable iSCSI on the adapter or team
before changing to any of the incompatible team types.
Automatic
802.3ad Dynamic with Fault Tolerance
Switch-assisted Load Balancing with Fault
Tolerance (SLB)
