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 follow...
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.
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.
- SET is not a successor to LBFO.
SET is just another teaming solution designed for special purposes like Hyper-V, S2D, SDN etc.
LBFO is still the recommended teaming solution for network redundancy - which is what most people need in Server Manager.
This is even clearly stated in the notes from the Convert-LBFO2SET tool:
"Please note that LBFO itself has not been deprecated, nor is it being removed, in Windows. LBFO should be used for "bare metal", meaning no virtual networking (Hyper-V, SDN/HCI, S2D, etc.) is in use, NIC teaming needs. Things such as, network redundancy on a DC, web server, and so on."- I do not disagree with that, yet as this feature is placed very prominently and the other is missing completely, most really don't know the differences and also limitations of LBFO.
My request is not to remove LBFO completely, that is to decide by the PG if they like to deprecate it or not.
I am just asking to remove it from Server Manager Overview as too many think this is the NIC teaming tech to go.
