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I just got a new motherboard with two ethernet ports. I'm trying to setup link aggregation with my router (qnap) that also supports it.

My question is: do I need to setup link aggregation in the router AND also configure windows 10 team? Is configuration needed on both windows 10 and the router or only on one or the other? That's where I'm confused.

Setting up the aggregation on the router was simple enough however when I did this, my windows 10 ports would all of a sudden show

Ethernet 1: connected

Ethernet 2: no internet

Without the router configured aggregation the ports would show

Ethernet 1: connected

Ethernet 2: connected

I just now setup Windows 10 TEAM to combine the two ethernet ports and also configured the router to aggregate the same ports. All seems to work and I see a third ethernet adapter created by Windows for the TEAM which is the one receiving traffic. Does that sound like its configured correctly?

This is what I installed to get the TEAM feature working in windows 10: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25016/Intel-Network-Adapter-Driver-for-Windows-10?product=36773

ps: also what type of aggregation should I use? I'm now configured as Static Link Aggregation, I'm looking for speed and bandwidth, both ports will always be up its a home setup.

James Bowen
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1 Answers1

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Generally, devices on both ends of the Ethernet cable need to agree on how the links are to be aggregated. At minimum, they need to agree on which ports are to be grouped, and on whether the LACP/802.3ad protocol will be used to automatically verify the parameters. The "hashing algorithm" should probably also match, for modes where it is relevant.

Otherwise, if one end sends packets through what it considers to be an aggregated link, the other end might ignore half of them due to arriving on the wrong interface, or something similar.

So yes, you'll need to install Windows "teaming" support and configure it to match the router's aggregation mode. (Note that Windows Server has teaming as a built-in feature, which would have worked even if your Ethernet drivers did not offer that option on their own.)

(Exception: I think Windows teaming has a mode which does not require participation from the router/switch. Not quite sure of the magic behind it – maybe it only works for sent traffic, not received?)

I personally prefer using dynamic aggregation using LACP aka 802.3ad, since it allows both devices to know whether they're in agreement or not – they'll show you some sort of link status. It also does failover as a bonus. But the downside is that a single TCP stream always sticks to a single link – for example, if you have 4x1 Gbps links, you can make four 1 Gbps TCP connections but never a single 4 Gbps one.

Static aggregation, on the other hand, needs to be carefully configured on both ends – there's nothing that would report config mismatches. On the other hand, there are several static bonding modes which allow spreading a single TCP stream across all links to make use of the full aggregated capacity.

grawity
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