I have a dual xeon x5690 that I’m using as a server (though it’s running Win 10 Pro)
In it I have an Intel® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port PCIe card.
Using Intel’s Powershell cmdlet (New-IntelNetTeam), I’ve teamed together the 2 ports on the ethernet card, alongside the two ports on the motherboard. ( Intel® 82576 Gigabit Dual Port ).
I then setup 4 ports on my Netgear GS724T managed switch as a LAG group.
It all appears to work; the connections are bonded in Windows to form a 4Gb link and clients on the network are able to access the server simultaneously at, more or less, 1Gb each.
However, it isn’t stable.
If I stress test the network bandwidth, within seconds/minutes one or other of the NIC drivers will stop responding, sometimes causing the entire server to freeze.
Without the stress test the server still falls over, it just takes a few hours/days.
Teaming just the two ports on the PCIe NIC results in the exact same behaviour, so I don’t think it’s any kind of incompatibility between the different NIC chipsets. (indeed, Intel’s teaming is supposed to work with all NICs, regardless of manufacturer or chipset).
Have I setup something incorrectly?
Or is it simply that these older NIC chipsets are not properly supported in Windows 10 and/or Intel’s NIC teaming cmdlet?