Hyper-V NIC Teaming

In a previous post I wrote about my experiences with Hyper-V on Server 2008 R2, and that teaming didn't work.

Well the good news is it works. The bad news is it feels like a house of cards.

Working with HP DL380 G5 and the very latest Proliant Support Pack (PSP 7.6) I managed to setup Hyper-V (on 2008 R2 Core) for Live Migration on teamed NICs. The storage is fibre attached and I would imagine that iSCSI teams are still not possible, but if anyone manages to do this let me know.

Anyway, onto the details.

For an exisiting Hyper-V server:

• Do one host at a time Live Migrating everything off it before starting
• Delete your Virtual Networks through Hyper-V Manager
• Install the PSP, downloading and updating NIC firmware as required
• Reboot
• Download the HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU) for 2008 R2 and install
• Reboot
• Create the team using the util C:\Program Files\HP\NCU\hpteam.cpl
• Reboot
• Set the IP info for your net interface (sconfig)
• Restart Hyper-V and Cluster services
• Recreate your Virtual Networks in Hyper-V manager.

Note: The last step is that hardest and takes ages to process so BE PATIENT.

also if it does fail then you have to break your team, reboot, recreate your team and try again.

I'd recommend turning off Windows Updates and avoid doing them for the moment. There is talk of windows updates breaking the teaming. Your own testing will be required on this one.

EDIT; I found a hiccup with teaming and MAC address. Have a read just so you are aware; http://anicegameof.blogspot.com/2010/04/hyper-v-mac-conflicts.html