Hyper-V (Cluster) and NIC teaming in the Parent Partition

Question

Hi,

I think this is a 50/50 question like what to do with primary and secondary DNS on domain controllers!!

I remember before Windows had native teaming, the guidance was to install the vendor teaming software > create the teams > install Hyper-V role. I still see that on some guidance with even native Windows teaming, but also see guidance that Hyper-V should be installed before creating native Windows teams.

Is there an actual current best practice/hard requirement for Server 2019?

Also, I have the luxury of lots of NICs per host:

2x 1Gb copper
4x 10Gb copper
4x SFP+

I was initially going to go with: 2 SFP+ for CSV, 2 SFP+ for LM, 4 10Gb copper for VM LAN, and 2 1Gb copper for management. However I'm also considering: 2 10Gb copper for CSV, 4 SFP+ for LM, 2 10Gb copper for VM LAN, and 2 1Gb copper for management.

What would be the better option? There will be hundreds of Servers, mostly SQL so compute will be high from RAM perspective. The 2nd option would be better for LM.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

I remember before Windows had native teaming, the guidance was to install the vendor teaming software > create the teams > install Hyper-V role. I still see that on some guidance with even native Windows teaming, but also see guidance that Hyper-V should be installed before creating native Windows teams.

I would recommend creating NIC teaming first, then install Hyper V role, so that if we want to create external virtual switch, the NIC teaming is ready.

I was initially going to go with: 2 SFP+ for CSV, 2 SFP+ for LM, 4 10Gb copper for VM LAN, and 2 1Gb copper for management. However I'm also considering: 2 10Gb copper for CSV, 4 SFP+ for LM, 2 10Gb copper for VM LAN, and 2 1Gb copper for management.

On the theoretical level, it's difficult to distinguish the difference between the two.

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Anne

-----------------------------

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

The current best practice is to forget LBFO teaming entirely. Use Switch-Embedded Teaming. It only works on like hardware, though. So, you could create an SET on the SFPs or an SET on the 10GbEs, but not a team across them. You must install Hyper-V before you have access to SET.

With all that 10+ gigabit hardware, the 1 gigabit is a waste. Disable it. With all the rest of it, you can pretty much do whatever you want. I rarely see hosts that strain a pair of 10GbE for everything. Prefer fewer virtual switches. It's less packet processing and less complicated to wire.

The most involved official SET documentation is a bit old, but I don't see anything egregiously wrong with it.