Forum Discussion
Feature Request: Please Remove NIC Teaming from Windows Server Manager and more
Dear MSFT Windows Server Team,
Since there have been unexpected changes but appreciated on Windows Server Manager (vNext shows Azure Arc status)
I would appreciate if vNext could have the following slight changes:
1. Server Manager: Local Server: Remote NIC Teaming or display WAC (SET-Teaming)
Usecase: avoid further use of LFBO NIC Teaming. More importantly, LBFO Teaming becomes a blocker if someone launches an in-place upgrade from WS2019 or prior to WS2022 (or later).
An working but unofficial script to convert LFBO to SET isn't really helpful for most, that did not know.
2. Server Manager: Print Servers: Add Printer Management to context menu when Print Management RSAT is installed and one goes to the Print Servers on the left pane.
It is still the only MMC missing in the context.
reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-server-insiders/windows-server-2022-any-build-add-print-management-console-to/td-p/2260658
Usecase: usability. Years after Print Management is not covered in WAC, and honestly do not see this coming.
3. Server Manager: Add Servers: The filtering option for OS when "add servers" does not really filter by OS. Selecting WS 2022 still shows Windows 10 / WS 2016 / 2019, too.
Could you do this? This would be really awesome. Not a killer feature but consistency and modern tech wins.
We have recently evaluated the improvements of NAS based backups of LACP Teaming vs SMB Multichannel (no teaming) most are not aware how severe LACP limits bandwidth. It was three times as fast with SMB 3 Multichannel (3x 1 GBit).
removing this familiar feature is not feasible. Please popup an article on learn.microsoft.com about the better alternatives, no teaming, Windows Admin Center SET-Teaming and how to get there (install Hyper-V).
That said not all backup vendors use native SMB for their products (unfortunately?), I mean with SMB compression and multichannel there is a lot to squeeze out and save the day of network admins blaming "it's the network guys" or configure LACP in the first place.- I would love to keep LBFO NIC Teaming. I have bad experiences with vswitches/SET-Teaming and Server 2022, leading to bluescreen-loops within a minute after after boot. Intel driver issue according to the logs - same reason why I don't use RDMA with intel nics. I don't trust Intel drivers. I was lucky that I could disable SET-Teaming without needing to reinstall. Classical teaming works perfect, even though it required the Hyper-V switch to be configured via powershell. Thee-node hyper-v cluster runs like a charm for 10 month now. I agree on offering the SET variant in the GUI of course.
Joachim_Otahal I hear you. Intel NICs are not an optimal choice for server networking nowadays, due to way how drivers quality. And this even though they might be and need to be listed in the compatibility catalog in the first place
I hope that Dan Cuomo can help to improve this in his new role (I learnt about from LinkedIn), don't have any expectations for older NICs such as X722 and before.
- LBFO is the preferred teaming method for most scenarios, so it should definitely not be replaced. Putting more configuration options in the GUI (like LACP timer) would be nice - or the option of changing default settings for LBFO.
Support for upgrading servers with teamed NICs would also be nice.sfijndata LFBO Teaming has a better successor called SET Teaming, requires to install Hyper-V Role though. The scenarios where LBFO would perfom better than SET, especially for SMB, are minimal and you save on configuring things like LACP.
LBFO is on the way out for years, but the communication has not reached everyone, leaving it in Server Manager prominently without a hint, does not contribute to help customers moving on to SET.
I am not requesting to remove LBFO entirely, that is the scope of the product group to announce a clear deprecation and removal of the feature in a roadmap, so people could get familiar with SET ahead of time. There are working converting scripts, but nothing official from Microsoft, and they might not use every bells and whistles such as SR-IOV and VLAN Isolation.
