NIC teaming is the process of grouping together several physical NICs into one single logical NIC, which can be used for network fault tolerance and transmit load balance. The process of grouping NICs is called teaming. Teaming has two purposes:
• Fault Tolerance: By teaming more than one physical NIC to a logical NIC, high availability is maximized. Even if one NIC fails, the network connection does not cease and continues to operate on other NICs.
• Load Balancing: Balancing the network traffic load on a server can enhance the functionality of the server and the network. Load balancing within network interconnect controller (NIC) teams enables distributing traffic amongst the members of a NIC team so that traffic is routed among all available paths.
I was having a conversation today with a colleague about the benefits of network teaming, if it’s something you haven’t come across check out this article. Basically many of the vendors that have dual network ports on one card are now allowing you to team them for extra functionality. It might be something of interest particularly in the blade arena. It’s done using software with IBM/HP having their own way of doing it, and can be typically scripted for installation/deployment.
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