ALB vs VMLB in Hyper-V

[vt5]

Hi, would like to know the advantage of using VMLB over ALB in Win8 Hyper-V, in our simulation, we created 2 teams out of ET quad port adapter, ALB and VMLB, both teams are visible in the selection under Hyper-V virtual switch setting.

based on the VMLB and ALB description mentioned in this site - http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-009747.htm# Modes Network Connectivity — How do I use Teaming with Advanced Networking Services (ANS)?

VMLB provides transmit and receive traffic load balancing across Virtual Machines bound to the team interface, In a VMLB team, each Virtual Machine is associated with one team member for its TX and RX traffic

ALB load balances transmissions, based on Destination Address, and can be used with any switch. Simultaneous transmission only occurs at multiple addresses

does it mean the only advantage of VMLB is virtual machines will be associated with one port while ALB will only occur at multiple destination addresses?

thanks in advance

[Mark_H_Intel · Accepted solution]

I think what you are saying is correct.

Maybe some examples will help clarify what happens. For this example:

• the team has two physical ports

• the server has three virtual machines, VM1, VM2, and VM3

Both team types provide fault tolerance so that the load will be balanced across working ports if one or more member ports fail.

Let's look at a VMLB team. VMLB teaming mode was created specifically for use with Hyper-V. Let's say that VM1 has as much network traffic as VM2 and VM3 combined. The VMLB team balancing algorithm will analyze the traffic and assign each VM to only one team member port. So VM1 would be assigned to member port 1 and VM2 and VM3 would both be assigned to member port 2. Thus the networking traffic would be roughly balanced between the member ports.

• VM1 -> Port 1

• VM2 and VM3 -> Port 2

Next is an example of using ALB. You can see details of ALB in the paper at http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/resources/doc_library/white_papers/254031.pdf http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/resources/doc_library/white_papers/254031.pdf. The ALB teaming mode balances transmit traffic across connections between the server and the other end of the connection based on destination IP address. Each new data flow is assigned to the least loaded team member. All the virtual machines share the ports based on the destination address.

In the paper I referenced above, you will see reference to Receive Load Balancing (RLB). When Hyper-V is not involved, RLB is enabled by default. With Hyper-V, Receive load balancing (RLB) cannot be enabled, So you need to use VMLB mode if you want to have a distribution of receive traffic for the team and VMLB is the recommended load balancing team mode for use with Hyper-V.

I hope this helps.

Mark H

[vt5]

thanks Mark, suggest to update the article posted in support site for clearer explanation about VMLB

[Mark_H_Intel]

You are welcome. I agree with your suggestion and will update the page.

Mark H