Using the multiple NICs of your File Server running Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2)

First published on TECHNET on Sep 03, 2010
New blog post covers Multi-NIC File Server configurations:

When you set up a File Server, there are advantages to configuring multiple Network Interface Cards (NICs). However, there are many options to consider depending on how your network and services are laid out. Since networking (along with storage) is one of the most common bottlenecks in a file server deployment, this is a topic worth investigating.

Throughout this blog post, we will look into different configurations for Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2) where a file server uses multiple NICs. Next, we’ll describe how the behavior of the SMB client can help distribute the load for a file server with multiple NICs. We will also discuss SMB2 Durability and how it can recover from certain network failure in configuration where multiple network paths between clients and servers are available. Finally, we will look closely into the configuration of a Clustered File Server with multiple client-facing NICs.

Read the full post, complete with diagrams and screenshots, at
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2010/09/03/using-the-multiple-nics-of-your-file-server-running-windows-server-2008-and-2008-r2.aspx