topic Load Balancing NICs in Windows Server 2003

Load Balancing NICs

Alex Eldridge — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:33:48 GMT

I have an HP Proliant ML570 G2 server running Win2k Advanced Server with a single Compaq NC7131 gigabit NIC. I was wondering if it is possible to install a second gigabit NIC card and congfigure it to load balance the network traffic across both NIC cards, in an effort to increase performance? I set up performance monitor to view traffic on the NIC and saw heavy "packets received/sec" (over 90 percent for 20 - 30 minute intervals) at various times throughout the day. I was hoping a second NIC might alleviate the load. Please let me know if this is possible. Thanks!

Re: Load Balancing NICs

Torsten. — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:37:07 GMT

You are in a wrong forum area now - this forum is HP-UX related.

Anyway, you can use "NIC teaming" to achieve this. You need similar NICs for this.

Re: Load Balancing NICs

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:49:14 GMT

Shalom and welcome to HP-UX land,

Yes indeed you can, you are much better off with an exact match. You'd also be better off with Windows 2003 Server if you must do windows.

The cards should be near exact matches to each other.

You might also deal with this situation with a better network switch.

SEP

Re: Load Balancing NICs

Ivan Ferreira — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:26:38 GMT

Please see:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175767/en-us

You will need a network card with "teaming" capabilities.