HP ProLiant G6/G7/Gen8 Servers - Network Configuration Utility is No Longer Available Within Microsoft Server 2012 Operating System

Title: HP ProLiant G6/G7/Gen8 Servers - Network Configuration Utility is No Longer Available Within Microsoft Server 2012 Operating System

Object Name: mmr_kc-0101637

Document Type: Support Information

Original owner: KCS - ProLiant Servers

Disclosure level: Public

Version state: final

Environment

FACT:HP ProLiant G6 Servers

FACT:HP ProLiant G7 Servers

FACT:HP ProLiant Gen8 Servers

FACT:Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (all editions)

FACT:Network Configuration Utility (NCU)

FACT:Network Teaming

Questions/Symptoms

SYMPTOM:HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU) is no longer available for download for the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Operating System.

SYMPTOM:HP NCU cannot be installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2012.

Cause

CAUSE:Microsoft Windows Server 2012 has Network Teaming functionality build into the Operating System of Microsoft Server 2012 (all editions).

Answer/Solution

FIX:

Use the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Operating System functionality to enable teaming for HP ProLiant Server Network Cards.  
HP is not going to develop any new Network Teaming Configuration Utility as the feature is now available from within the core Operating System.  

NIC Teaming can be configured in Windows Server 2012 through the NIC Teaming management interface or through the rich PowerShell interface. The NIC Teaming management UI is a simple interface that uses the PowerShell cmdlets to manage teams. See below for the complete guide to NIC Teaming PowerShell cmdlets. There are multiple ways to invoke the NIC Teaming management interface.

From Server Manager: 

1. Open Server Manager.  
2. In the console tree, click Local Server.  
3. In the details pane, in the Properties section, click NIC Teaming Administration under Remote Desktop.  


From the desktop: 

1. Click Start, type lbfoadmin, and then press Enter. 
Alternately, click Start, click Run, type lbfoadmin, and then press Enter. 
To manage multiple servers at a time add servers through the Add Server task item, or use the following command:  
lbfoadmin /servers servername1 servername2    

This will run the NIC Teaming management interface with the list of specified server names.  

To configure NIC Teaming on a server:

1. Click the server name in the list of servers (even if there is only a single server).

2. From the Tasks drop-down menu in the Teams section, click New Team. 

3. In the Add Team dialog box, type a team name and select the network adapters in the team. 

4. If VLANs is being used, clear the Default check box and specify the VLAN ID. By default, the team will deliver up all traffic received regardless of VLAN ID (though the VLAN ID is passed with the packet so that other components in the stack can sort them appropriately).

5. If a mode other than the default needs to be used, click Advanced and specify the teaming mode (Switch Independent, Static Teaming, or LACP) and load distribution mode (Address Hash) as needed.

6. Click OK to create the team.

A good explanation (snapshot as above) is available on the follow URL as well as hosted on Microsoft.com.
Click here to view "NIC Teaming Overview" .

Other good documents about Microsoft and HP Integration/Implementation for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 can be found in the following URLs:

Click here to view the page for "Microsoft Windows Server 2012".
Click here to go to "Private Cloud with HP and Microsoft Windows Server 2012".


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