Question : Problem: Is it worth NIC teaming on our HP servers?

Hi everyone,

Happy to be here. Incredible site... I'll definitely be keeping my membership from what I've seen! :)

Ok, to my problem. I've noticed that we have 3 HP Proliant servers at work (Windows 2003 Server), each with 2 NICs, and only 1 of them is in use on all of them (into a Gbit switch of course).

I did some research into NIC teaming (supported by HP and the Network Configuration Manager utility), collated information from the following links (and a few other sources) and submitted an (informal) proposal to my manager:

"      http://www.brianmadden.com/content/article/HP-ProLiant-Network-Adapter-Teaming-Explained
"      http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/networking/teaming.html
"      http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantessentials/inp/demo/en/index.html

The server that I thought would benefit most from an upgrade was:

"      Server: HP ProLiant DL380 G4
"      Network cards: 2x HP NC7782 Gigabit Server Adapter
o      Card1 = 10.25.8.3
o      Card2 = Not connected.

... this is a file and print server. My manager had a think about it, but came back to me a week later saying that he thought the main bottleneck would be disk access, rather than throughput on the NIC... although if I could prove otherwise he'd think about doing it. I don't see what harm it could cause, other than him worrying about the risk of breaking a server for little beneficial gain (even if it is technically a free upgrade).

So, my question is this:

Is he right? I know this depends on the network and the demand for resources on the server... is there any information I can provide that would help you make an educated guess?

Answer : Problem: Is it worth NIC teaming on our HP servers?

I suspect that if it is GB ethernet, your NICs aren't going to be the bottleneck.  To check, bring up  Performance monitor and use the Network Interface performance object to monitor traffic over a couple days.

To ensure you don't decrease your throughput, use dual paths via dual switches and ensure your switches support 802.3ad load balancing.  This will also ensure your paths are more redundant too.