Bridging or teaming media server NICs?

[Dave Raue]

As described in another thread my media server is an HP DL380 G7 which has 4 integrated NICs (QLogic BCM5709C's). It's running Win10 Pro workstation. I'm in the process of running ethernet cables to new media room, moving server, etc etc. In the course of doing so I stumbled onto NIC bridging. My limited searching returned a lot more info on teaming than bridging, though what I got was that bridging seems to increase bandwidth. If so, that seems like a useful thing to do on a media server, though the improvement may far exceed the actual bandwidth needed for most media, big files, etc.

Can anybody clarify further? I couldn't make it work, but I didn't try very hard. If it's potentially worthwhile I'd make the effort to figure it out. Thanks and cheers,

 

[jinjuku]

Here is the skinny on Windows Client operating systems and NIC vendors with their own teaming functions:

M$ has done their level best to purge their OS economy of 3rd party teaming by the NIC vendors. M$ supports teaming, natively, only in Server editions and have disabled it for Client OS.

You're best bet is to upgrade the NIC on your computer. I've used Solar Flare SPF+ PCIE 4X 61XX series and you can get them for $20 on ebay. Then toss in two 10GBe copper transceiver like this for $39. But you will need to upgrade your switch. I'm using a Juniper EX3300 that I picked up for $50 shipped off of ebay.

It's a lot easier than trying to hack Windows 10.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

As described in another thread my media server is an HP DL380 G7 which has 4 integrated NICs (QLogic BCM5709C's). It's running Win10 Pro workstation. I'm in the process of running ethernet cables to new media room, moving server, etc etc. In the course of doing so I stumbled onto NIC bridging. My limited searching returned a lot more info on teaming than bridging, though what I got was that bridging seems to increase bandwidth. If so, that seems like a useful thing to do on a media server, though the improvement may far exceed the actual bandwidth needed for most media, big files, etc.

Can anybody clarify further? I couldn't make it work, but I didn't try very hard. If it's potentially worthwhile I'd make the effort to figure it out. Thanks and cheers,

NIC bringing, aka teaming, aka LACP, aka LAG, increases throughput, not bandwidth.
IE: You simultaneously copy files from 4 servers into 1 each at one Gb/s - you will get (up to) 4Gb/s of total throughput. But if you copy one large file (one stream) from one server to another - you only get (up to) 1Gb/s

Now, I know some techies will say, Hold up BSA, what about SMB Multichannel? The answer is that it's complex, and has specific requirements for hardware NIC and switches:

Deploy SMB Multichannel

learn.microsoft.com

I agree with @jinjuku above - it's much easier to grab a used 10/25 gig NIC and switch on ebay.
I had great success with a very cheap Brocade ICX6610 which I bought for under $150 and with the help of good people on ServeTheHome forum I've fully unlocked all of its features

Brocade ICX Series (cheap & powerful 10gbE/40gbE switching)

NOTE #1: do not PM me with switch questions, they will be ignored - post them in this public thread, where hundreds of other members can also answer, and the answer will be public for future users NOTE #2 06-22-2023: Yes, this post is still up to date and nothing has changed: in fact judging by...

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