Hyper-V NIC best Practices

AlphaTwin70 21 Reputation points
2021-10-07T19:59:49.23+00:00

Hello,

I've recently been setting up quite a few Hyper-V host (Server 2012 R2 and 2019 Standard, most 2019) as we work our way though virtualizing most of our servers. Our servers are rackmount Dells with 4 NICs. What I've been doing is assigning a virtual switch to each physical NIC. However, it occured to me the other day that I could TEAM all 4 NICs and then create 1 virtual switch and use it for all the VMs. This would increase redundancy as well as simplify initial setup.

I did just that on my backup server as a test as well as increase throughput and it seems to work fine. I'm sure I won't be going to training anytime soon for Hyper-V so I'm curious what you all think is the best way to do this. My network setup is nothing out of the ordinary, just Cisco GIG switches with default VLAN1.

Thanks for any advice
Eric

Windows Server 2019
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A Microsoft server operating system that supports enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
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A Windows technology providing a hypervisor-based virtualization solution enabling customers to consolidate workloads onto a single server.
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Accepted answer
  1. Dave Patrick 426.1K Reputation points MVP
    2021-10-07T20:11:57.017+00:00

    You could read on here about options.
    https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/virtual-networking-configuration-best-practices/

    --please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

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  1. AlphaTwin70 21 Reputation points
    2021-10-08T16:05:00.18+00:00

    Blockquote

    Because teaming is not a central feature or requirement of Hyper-V, it won’t be discussed in detail here. Hyper-V does utilize native adapter teaming to great effect and, therefore, it should be used whenever possible.

    Blockquote

    I've read that article a few times before, but it doesn't really go into great detail on teaming. It seems to suggest to use it, and I think they mean on the Host server not necessarily the VM which I've also tried and does work, but it gave me problems with the VM when I tried to remove one of the Virtual Switches.

    I guess I'm just curious what others do. If you're just setting up a server with multiple nics, do you prefer to TEAM them all on the host and create one virtual switch, or a virtual switch for each physical nic?

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  2. Dave Patrick 426.1K Reputation points MVP
    2021-10-08T17:56:57.657+00:00

    Yes, the teaming would be done on the host. It really depends on the specific situation whether to team or not.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking/technologies/nic-teaming/create-a-new-nic-team-on-a-host-computer-or-vm

    --please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--