NIC teaming software enables load balancing and failover

Load balancing

When multiple VMs communicate with a single virtual switch, and that virtual switch exchanges traffic with a single NIC, that single NIC port can become a network bandwidth bottleneck that can impact the performance of one or more VMs. NIC teaming software can spread the network traffic from multiple VMs across two or more physical NICs. This creates far greater bandwidth than a single NIC provides.

The most common NIC teaming software option for load balancing is to route traffic based on the switch port ID. Here, traffic from a virtual port is sent to the same physical port unless a failover occurs in the NIC team, and traffic is received by the same physical port.

The most common NIC teaming software option for load balancing is to route traffic based on the switch port ID.

A route can also be selected based on a source MAC hash, which is a hash of the source MAC address, or on an IP hash, which is a hash of the source and destination IP addresses of each traffic packet. This is often the best option for link aggregation.

Failover

A failover configuration enables a virtual switch to send traffic to an alternate physical port when the primary physical port fails. Failover decisions can be made by checking the link status from the network adapter -- such as a failed or removed cable -- but this doesn't detect configuration problems, such as spanning tree errors.

Another approach to failover is beacon probing, which sends and listens for Ethernet broadcast frames, combined with link status, to evaluate link failures and trigger failovers. Normally, NIC teaming software applies a failback policy that will restore traffic to physical ports that become available, putting the backup port in standby once again.

It's worth noting that failover is a powerful tool for network resilience, but isn't enough for a truly resilient network. Best practice dictates a robust network design that builds in multiple redundant pathways for network traffic between critical devices.