This blog post was written by Dell System Principal Engineer, Alaa Yousif
Microsoft for a long time relied on vendors to create teaming and VLAN networks on the host OS. In Windows Server 2012 Microsoft introduces native OS network teaming, and a module for PowerShell to make it easy for System Administrators to team network interfaces on a network adapter and create sub-networks with VLAN IDs.
Many Dell solutions rely heavily on the concept of NIC teaming and separation of network traffic using VLANs. As an example, Dell vStart solutions require the creation of several VLAN networks to support and enable best practices for network traffic isolation, performance, and security. When implementing the solution with Windows Server 2008 R2, vendor specific tools like BACS (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite) are required to team network interfaces and create VLANs that Hyper-V can leverage.
With the new support from Microsoft, it is now possible to team NICs and create VLAN networks without relying on vendor tools like BACS. Simple commands within PowerShell like New-NetLbfoTeam and Add-NetLbfoTeamNic can now be used.
NIC Teaming, also known as load balancing/failover (LBFO) allows multiple network interfaces to be placed into a team for the purpose of bandwidth aggregation and/or failover to prevent connectivity loss. Teaming is required to create a network with VLAN IDs. A minimum of one NIC interface is needed to create a team and then assign a VLAN ID. To create a failover network, a minimum of two NICs are required.
All Dell vStart solutions are designed to support failure protection. To build a failover network, two Ethernet ports are teamed together and then several sub-networks are created for different purposes. If one port goes down in a team then traffic automatically will go through the second port.
Below are sample PowerShell commands that can be used to team two Ethernet ports on PowerEdge servers, and then create four different VLAN interfaces. The four VLANs will have VLAN ID 10, 11, 12, 13. The commands assume a network adaptor with four ports that are named “Ethernet, Ethernet1, Ethernet2, Ehernet3” by the operating system. The commands shown in Example 1 below will team the first and third ports together, and then create appropriate VLANs.
- New-NetLbfoTeam -Name "Lan Team" -TeamMembers Ethernet,Ethernet2 –TeamingMode SwitchIndependent
- Add-NetLbfoTeamNic -Team "Lan Team" -vLanID 10 -Name "Management VLAN"
- Add-NetLbfoTeamNic -Team "Lan Team" -vLanID 11 -Name "Live Migration VLAN"
- Add-NetLbfoTeamNic -Team "Lan Team" -vLanID 12 -Name "Cluster Network VLAN"
- Add-NetLbfoTeamNic -Team "Lan Team" -vLanID 13 -Name "HyperV Swtich VLAN"
Once the teams and VLANs are created, Hyper-V can then be configured to use the teams for network traffic like Management or Live Migration. By taking advantage of the new network team features in Server 2012 and PowerShell, Systems Administrators and Dell Services Engineers can automate what was a more manual, time consuming, and potentially error-prone process in the past.
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