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I'm trying to set up a redundant link from my Windows server (Dell R710 with 4 GigE ports) to my Cisco switch. I'd like to "failover" in case the first Ethernet link fails (e.g. NIC issue, cable issue). How would I go about doing this? Didn't find much on Google. I'm using Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, if that matters.

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If your switch supports it I'd recommending bonding the ports together. When you've got all 4 ports bonded you should be able to have any one of them go down, unless theres an issue with the nic, and the rest continue transmitting.

Here's a LINK to a pretty decent article on bonding your NICs. Here's a LINK to a wiki article on LACP, which is what your switch needs.

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Can you please give me some info on how to set this up on the windows side? The NIC is a Broadcom 5709c. – AX1 Dec 30 '10 at 21:58
Added a link in the answer, one thing to keep in mind you should make sure your switch is going to support it. If its a low end Cisco product theres a chance it wont. – ErnieTheGeek Dec 30 '10 at 22:11
Thanks for the link! Looking at it now. For the switch side, it's a Cisco SG300-28. On the cisco site (cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps10898/…) it says under "Port Grouping" that it has "Support for IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)" - is that what I need? – AX1 Dec 30 '10 at 22:14
Yup, LACP is what you want. Heres a wiki article on it. – ErnieTheGeek Dec 30 '10 at 22:30
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Bonding is one way to go, perhaps the right way to go.

The quick and dirty way, 2 separate NIC, 2 separate IPs, 2 separate switch ports, 1 DNS entry using round robin.

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