I211/I217-V Windows 10 LACP teaming fails

[FKurt]

Hello,

after the update to Windows 10 (x64, Build 10240) the creation of a teaming group (static or IEEE802.3ad) with a I211+I217-V NIC fails.

Drivers have been upgraded to the latest version available and multiple reinstallations with reboots din't help either. Whenever the group creation wizzard is used and a groupname (several tried), the adapters and LACP have been selected, a Windows pop-up appears to tell me group creation has failed.

However the Windows Device Manager shows a newly created "Intel Advanced Network Services Virtual Adapter", so some kind of configuration seems to get done.

Using Windows 7 SP1 x64 the exact same setup worked flawlessly for months, so Win10/the driver are the likely culprit.

Is anyone experiencing similar problems and/or is this a known bug? Feedback on this issue is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,

Famaku

[MSava3]

Carl,

was the update released from MS few days ago the one we were waiting for?

I've seen it has changed several things on the network stack.

Just to know if MS has done their part of the job for you to proceed with the fix.

Thank you,

M

[DCol]

Driver 21.1 was released a month ago and no, it does not have the changes.

[MAnde19]

I think he was talking about the Microsoft updates released the other day.

[MSava3]

correct, I was wondering if the work MS side is done and now we have to wait for Intel Side or we are still waiting for MS

[MAnde19]

I don't Suppose you have any updates do you @Carl_Wilson? I'm guessing another week or so before we know anything?

[MMath7]

Hello Carl, do you have any news on this topic ?

Especially about the backport of RS2 changes (which I understand is a MS side task, but you probably have tigher news than us) and also about he upcoming Intel driver version.

[ELepi1]

Hi,

I'm sorry but is there any update for Windows 10 Version 1607?

Regards,

[idata]

There is no update until Microsoft releases a patch for Redstone 1. Carl_Wilson has it on good authority that is currently scheduled to be included in December updates (so, mid December). So once that is released (assuming Microsoft doesn't delay), I would assume it'll be another week or two (maybe 2-3 with Holidays) before Intel releases a patch.

So I personally am hoping for a late Christmas / Happy New Year gift from Intel. Assuming Microsoft doesn't become the scrooge and delay the patch, I wouldn't expect any more updates for another 1-2 months. But hopefully the next update will be an announcement of this finally, finally, FINALLY being resolved on Windows 10 with the latest patches installed and a brand new point release of Intel ANS.

[OSwie]

Hello All,

I have tried Teaming Intel Nics now on the following;

Windows 10 Pro

Windows 10 Enterprise

Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 Long Term Support

Windows Server 2016 Release Candidate

I can say from first hand that Intel's latest drivers for Server 2016 still does not have functional Teaming support. Only Microsoft's version. You can not use Intel's version for LACP support.

So what does that mean.

While running Windows Server 2012 R2 you can use Intel's Teaming software and transfer 400MB/s plus over (4) 1Gb Ethernet. Using all NIC's equally. Windows Server 2016 you can not. A single threaded transfer max's out at about 114MB/s. You will never achieve equal through put over all NIC's using any settings built in to Windows Server 2016. I'm using a Juniper EX2200-C Switch.

From my research over google. Microsoft has specifically crippled windows 10 through to 2016 server. For reasons unknown to us lowly IT folk. They have now built in as part of Windows to specifically search for know Teaming software from all vendors and even have gone as far as to not allow the applications to ether function or in some cases launch.

At this point Intel isn't even fighting this. To what end I'm not sure. But at this point from my own research and watching other NIC vendors even if one of the vendors puts out new software to get around it Microsoft kills it in the next patch update.

I'm not sure how this is going to play out. I wanted to use the upcoming Server 2016, but as it stands I can't because of reduced NIC performance and added latency of the Microsoft LACP implementation.

But hey don't take my word for it. Test it yourself and let us all know if you find a way around it.

Come on Intel. Fight the man. We want Intel Teaming to work. Give Microsoft the finger and give your customers what they want!

P.S. to Intel (rambling here)

Your X710 NIC's are dog crap. I have 12 of them that had to be pulled. They're paper weights even with the latest firmware. It's why Dell still offers the X520's for all their hardware. And only use X520 for iSCSI. Anybody reading use X520's for iSCSI.

[DCol]

Just proves my earlier point that MS does not have the talent anymore to make it work. I think they lost or got rid of some key core people which explains all the staff movement in June/July. The Win10 insider program is now run by the previous phone team. They keep breaking functionality in the core when they implement new mobile functions which seems to be 95% of the new features. More and more I believe that Win10 is being developed only for the tablet and phone market. PC's are left behind. Now the real problem is their Enterprise customers. Server development is also suffering. All the new talent is geared toward mobile apps and touch functions. Microsoft will be forced to phase out Desktop and Server software because the market and educational system is forcing it. So who will pick up the slack. Most Windows server systems over the next decade will be forced to move to Linux based systems. I bet Windows Server 2016 is the last server offering from Microsoft which really does explain the current situation.

[DDoc]

I just installer my first Windows Server 2016, with Intel X550-T2 server adapter and Intel PROSet 21.1. Guess what? No Teaming nor VLAN support !!!!

Can you please confirm that support for such basic pro features like VLAN is also broken in Windows **SERVER** 2016?

That's unbelievable!

[CUllr]

DocTB wrote:

I just installer my first Windows Server 2016, with Intel X550-T2 server adapter and Intel PROSet 21.1. Guess what? No Teaming nor VLAN support !!!!

Can you please confirm that support for such basic pro features like VLAN is also broken in Windows **SERVER** 2016?

Calm down. 2016 has built-in UI for configuring teaming, so Intel do not install their own. Look in Server Manager, "Local Server", there's a "Teaming" link in the box at the top.

There's also the infamous "New-NetLBFOTeam" PowerShell cmdlet, of course.

[OSwie]

Built in on 2016 doesn't work properly. I have it. So.... nope.

[DDoc]

Nope. It's totally wrong to say that "Intel do not install their own" just because Windows Server 2016 includes software VLAN support inside another feature (Network Team).

First, using the "Teaming" features for handling VLAN when you don't need Teaming is an horrible workaround. It adds a lot of unwanted overhead and CPU load. For 10 to 40 GbE, it DOES matter

Second, there is nothing new with Windows Server 2016 here: Windows Server 2012 R2 is also able to do the exact same thing since many years (handling VLAN within Teaming) and that never prevented the Intel driver to include the hardware VLAN feature/tab! There's no needs to buy $500+ NICs if hardware offloading is broken.

Seems obvious that the issue is the same than on Windows 10 : creating Virtual NIC fails. The driver is able to set a global VLAN without any issue within the drivers, but the support for multiple hardware VLAN (with multiple Virtual NIC) is badly broken. I don't blame Intel because a MS bug seems to be the root cause of the issue, but a BIG warning should be displayed everywhere.

[OSwie]

Actually....

On server 2012 r2 you can't add a Hyper-V virtual switch to a Intel based Team. Buuuuut if you make a VLAN virtual adapter to that team you can attach a Hyper-V virtual switch to that Intel Teamed VLAN running at 20Gb. I'm doing it with Intel Dual Port X520 Nics. I get lower latency and higher thru put to the VM's themselves with less miss ordered packets when running at high line rates. Better numbers than that of a single 10Gb nic just using Virtual Machine Queuing options.

So yes there is a reason to use $500+ NICs to set as a team and then use a VLAN off of them.

By the way. On my Server 2016 test system that I can not use Intel ANS on to complete a Team in LACP, I reluctantly setup Microsoft Teaming with LACP. Problem is I also use Symantec Endpoint Protection. The moment you turn on the Symantec firewall it disables Microsoft Teaming with "Faulted LACP negotiation" Disable it and it reconnects.

So you can't use Intel ANS, and if you use Microsoft's LACP you can't run Symantec's network security. Nice hu? So if your ISO documents require it to be installed and you need Teaming your in a Catch 22. Beautiful.

[FDi_T]

I'm new to this topic and I was wondering if there is any chance to put the two embedded LAN-Ports Intel 82574L and Intel 82579V of an ASUS P9X79 WS mainboard together into LACP mode?

I'm not only asking because the issue discussed this topic but also because of the technical sight, meaning the two different types of those two LAN-controllers. Can someone confirm that this would work if Intel is fixing the driver issues? The problem is that I can not test it as long the Windows 10 fix is not available and I didn't find an answer by googling those two LAN Controllers. Maybe some of you network specialists have made an experience with the LAN-controllers on this mainboard.

Thank you in advance.

[RTate1]

I have had ASUS P9X79 WS mainboard working in LACP mode with Intel teaming and Windows 8.x.

[MAnde19]

Just FYI, teaming isn't broken on windows 8 AFAIK.

This post is about Windows 10 in which they have broken teaming support as it apparently was not a feature in client SKUs.

[RTate1]

I understand that teaming isn't broken on Windows 8. I was responding to the question from Tattoofreak about whether the two different Intel model NICs on the ASUS P9X79 WS mainboard can be put into LACP mode which I have done with Windows 8.x prior to moving the system to Windows 10.

[MAnde19]

Apologies, when I first read that post I did not see the windows 8 comment.

[LJ]

Can someone at Intel confirm that KB3206632 with driver 12.15.23.8 solves this problem. Not got the time to install and check myself this min.