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I have Hyper-v installed on Windows Server 2012 R2.

We are using 2 x Dell R730xd's with 8 NICS (4x10GigE 4x1GigE) per host. I would like to dedicate 2 NICS to our ISCSI network, however I am unsure as to how i should do this.

Initially i had planned to create a NIC team on each HOST for two of the 10GigE's and connect that to a vSwitch labeled 'Storage' however, I have read several articles that say not to/do this (link). My primary goal is to ensure redundancy and throughput.

I am very confused by these three statements:

· The Technet statement that basically quotes “iSCSI + NIC Teaming not supported” is still true for all teaming solutions, with the EXCEPTION of the Windows Server 2012 inbox NIC Teaming solution we provide.

· If iSCSI Initiator is used with dedicated NICs such as in a stand-alone and/or Failover Clustering environment, then NIC Teaming should not be used (because it adds no benefit over MPIO for dedicated NICs).

· If iSCSI Initiator is used in a shared NIC scenario (see figure below) such as in a Hyper-V 2012 environment, then iSCSI Initiator used over the Hyper-V switch (and over NIC Teaming) is supported.

Should i use two separate NICS connected to two different vSwitches or, can i go ahead and configure a NIC team on the host as initially planned. Is there a another/better way for me to setup the iSCSI network?

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  • Why would you want to create a virtual switch for your iSCSI NIC's? Virtual switches are for virtual machines. While you certainly could use a single NIC for your virtual switch, iSCSI, Live Migration, CSV and Management if you only had one NIC, that's not the case here. You have enough NIC's that you can dedicate one (or two) to iSCSI.
    – joeqwerty
    Jun 23, 2015 at 13:30

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Start by realizing that ISCSI is made for networks. Redundancy is built into the protocol, as is using multiple NIC for performance. This is called "Multi Path" (MPIO) and is fully supported by Windows. No need to use a virtual switch (which would not work on a stream anyway as every data stream can only go to one NIC), instead set up multi pathing properly.

Then use native NIC directly from the host and all will be fine.

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  • Mojo and nic teaming are different technologies. NnFor example NIC teaming may be used in connection with etherchannel on hardware stacked switches.
    – kakaz
    Mar 21, 2017 at 19:21

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