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Network Teaming using ProSetCL on Windows Server Core

idata
Employee
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I have a server with 8 network adapters in it.

C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX\CL>ProSetCL Adapter_Enumerate

Number of adapters currently present: 8

1) Intel(R) 82580 Gigabit Network Connection

2) Intel(R) 82580 Gigabit Network Connection # 4

3) Intel(R) 82580 Gigabit Network Connection # 3

4) Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection

5) Intel(R) 82580 Gigabit Network Connection # 2

6) Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter # 2

7) Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter

8) Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection # 2

My goal is to make 4 Network Teams, I used the Latest Driver Set from the ProWinX64 installation. At first I want to create a single team between adapter 4 and adapter 8. When I execute the command to create a team, it returns failed. Further inspection shows that adapter 4 has teaming capabilities and adapter 8 does not, as seen in this out put

C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX\CL>ProSetCL Adapter_EnumerateCapabilities 4

4) Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection

Supported Capabilities:

1000 Mbps Support

100 Mbps Support

10 Mbps Support

Adapter Fault Tolerance

Adapter Load Balancing

Boot Agent Support

Diagnostics Support

802.3AD Support

SLA Support

Identify Support

Intel Adapter

iSCSI Support

LOM Support

Power Management Support

Server Adapter Support

SFT Support

Teaming

VLAN

Wake On LAN Support

Jumbo Frame Support

Scalable Networking Pack Support

C:\Program Files\Intel\DMIX\CL>ProSetCL Adapter_EnumerateCapabilities 8

8) Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection # 2

Supported Capabilities:

1000 Mbps Support

100 Mbps Support

10 Mbps Support

Boot Agent Support

Diagnostics Support

Identify Support

Intel Adapter

iSCSI Support

LOM Support

Power Management Support

VLAN

Wake On LAN Support

Jumbo Frame Support

Scalable Networking Pack Support

Adapter 6 and 7 also show that teaming is not a supported capability, yet that same adapter in another server shows that they are.

Any suggestions on what the problem/configuration might be?

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Mark_H_Intel
Employee
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Hi,

The lack of teaming capabilities for the Ethernet ports is probably caused by two different reasons.

For Intel(R) I350 Gigabit Network Connection # 2, this port probably has system management capabilities. Teaming is not supported on a port that can be used for server management, because the management engine takes precedence.IF you have a BIOS option to disable the management engine and if you don't plan to use that capability, you could try disabling it and then checking the capabilities.

 

I am not sure why the Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter ports are not advertising the teaming capabilities. Have you tried creating a team with them even though the capability is not advertised? If you cannot get the teaming to work on these ports, then I would try uninstalling the Intel Network Connections software and then install the software again. I can not think of any good reason why you should not be able to team those ports.

I hope this helps.

Mark H

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idata
Employee
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Hi,

I ended up rebuilding the operating system and without making any changes to the Bios all the cards are now showing the expected options. My Experience with Server Core over the last 4 years is that any hardware change typically requires an OS rebuild. This has been true on HP, Asus and Fujitsu server hardware. I think this is evident with the lack of tools available from Microsoft for maintaining software drivers in Server core installations.

The take away is that with server core installations is that they are purpose built appliances. Once they are deployed and used, any hardware changes should be accompanied with an OS re image.

In this case I had enabled the clustering feature and had used it in my Hyper-V cluster prior to adding the Dual Port cards.

-Markus

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