Anyone know if this is possible?  I've fallen in love with the Windows Server 2k12 Nic Teaming feature and want to see if I can use it on Windows 8 Client?? (Consumer Release Review)

I'm talking about the actual NIC TEAMING GUI that is in WinServer 2k12.

Thanks! 

Just tried it and from what it looks, it seems to be limited to the server SKUs. Disappointment.... :-/

PS C:\Windows\system32> New-NetLbfoTeam NICTeam

cmdlet New-NetLbfoTeam at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
TeamMembers[0]: Ethernet
TeamMembers[1]: Ethernet 2
TeamMembers[2]:
New-NetLbfoTeam : One of the required software components, 'ms_lbfo' is missing on the system. Please make sure you
are using a Server SKU, and that no OS components have been uninstalled.
At line:1 char:1
+ New-NetLbfoTeam NICTeam
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (MSFT_NetLbfoTeam:root/StandardCimv2/MSFT_NetLbfoTeam) [New-NetLbfoTeam],
   CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MiClientApiError_Failed,New-NetLbfoTeam

PS C:\Windows\system32>

Just tried it and from what it looks, it seems to be limited to the server SKUs. Disappointment.... :-/

PS C:\Windows\system32> New-NetLbfoTeam NICTeam

cmdlet New-NetLbfoTeam at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
TeamMembers[0]: Ethernet
TeamMembers[1]: Ethernet 2
TeamMembers[2]:
New-NetLbfoTeam : One of the required software components, 'ms_lbfo' is missing on the system. Please make sure you
are using a Server SKU, and that no OS components have been uninstalled.
At line:1 char:1
+ New-NetLbfoTeam NICTeam
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (MSFT_NetLbfoTeam:root/StandardCimv2/MSFT_NetLbfoTeam) [New-NetLbfoTeam],
   CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MiClientApiError_Failed,New-NetLbfoTeam

PS C:\Windows\system32>

• Edited by Jshansen Monday, August 20, 2012 5:33 AM
• Marked as answer by ECase Monday, August 20, 2012 2:15 PM

Thanks alot for reply!

Can anyone answer this for me?

Is teaming the same as bridging?

I ask this because:

• On WINSERVER2k12, once I team 2 Nics, the team appears in Hyper-V Virtual Switch Manager.
• On WIN8CLIENT, once I bridge 2 Nics, the bridge does not appear in Hyper-V; instead, the individual nics are still listed.

Thanks

  That is correct. Bridging is not the same as teaming. You cannot assign a virtual network to a bridge.

Teaming is making multiple NICs collaborate on servicing the same network for increased speed and resilience. Bridging is used to connect traffic between two distinct networks. See Bridging (networking) for more.

Teaming is making multiple NICs collaborate on servicing the same network for increased speed and resilience. Bridging is used to connect traffic between two distinct networks. See Bridging (networking) for more.

• Marked as answer by ECase Tuesday, September 25, 2012 6:54 PM

This comment is USELESS!

WE know the difference between Teaming and Bridging.

We do want TEAMING on Windows 8 (non server) we do not care of Bridging.

The question is HOW TO ENABLE TEAMING on Windows 8?

NIC Teaming includes several parts:

• The core teaming engine
• The PowerShell management cmdlets ("NetLbfo")
• The NIC Teaming GUI

The core teaming engine is a server feature.  It is not licensed for or included in Windows 8 or Windows RT; there is no way to enable it on these operating systems.

The PowerShell cmdlets ("NetLbfo") are built into Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, and Windows RT.  However these cmdlets are only useful when targeting a Windows Server 2012 machine.  When using the cmdlets from a Windows 8 or Windows RT machine, you can only manage remote servers.

The NIC Teaming GUI can be installed on Windows 8, if you download the RSAT package.  The NIC Teaming GUI, when running on Windows 8, can again only create and manage teams on remote servers, since the core teaming engine is not present on Windows 8.  (If you enable WinRM remoting on Windows 8, you can add that client to the NIC Teaming GUI, but since you can't create teams on Windows 8, there's not much the GUI can do besides enable/disable NICs.)

Network Bridging is a related feature, and it is available in Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Server 2012.  While Network Bridging is generally not as powerful as NIC Teaming, Network Bridging can do one neat trick that teaming cannot do: bridge over a WiFi adapter.

Please be more respectful of other people in this forum.  The question about bridging is perfectly on-topic, and the response from Jshansen was excellent.

NIC Teaming includes several parts:

• The core teaming engine
• The PowerShell management cmdlets ("NetLbfo")
• The NIC Teaming GUI

The core teaming engine is a server feature.  It is not licensed for or included in Windows 8 or Windows RT; there is no way to enable it on these operating systems.

The PowerShell cmdlets ("NetLbfo") are built into Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, and Windows RT.  However these cmdlets are only useful when targeting a Windows Server 2012 machine.  When using the cmdlets from a Windows 8 or Windows RT machine, you can only manage remote servers.

The NIC Teaming GUI can be installed on Windows 8, if you download the RSAT package.  The NIC Teaming GUI, when running on Windows 8, can again only create and manage teams on remote servers, since the core teaming engine is not present on Windows 8.  (If you enable WinRM remoting on Windows 8, you can add that client to the NIC Teaming GUI, but since you can't create teams on Windows 8, there's not much the GUI can do besides enable/disable NICs.)

Network Bridging is a related feature, and it is available in Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Server 2012.  While Network Bridging is generally not as powerful as NIC Teaming, Network Bridging can do one neat trick that teaming cannot do: bridge over a WiFi adapter.

Please be more respectful of other people in this forum.  The question about bridging is perfectly on-topic, and the response from Jshansen was excellent.

• Proposed as answer by shadowkill50Microsoft employee Tuesday, September 03, 2013 6:29 PM

Thank you. This is very unfortunate.

I do not really understand why they continue to stripe out of W8 (that has the same kernel of the server) some basic functionalities like teaming or raid.

The only result is that the end users have to rely on sw drivers that are, very often, at a lower quality level than MS implementation.

Is really unwise and unfortunate.

M

NIC Teaming includes several parts:

• The core teaming engine
• The PowerShell management cmdlets ("NetLbfo")
• The NIC Teaming GUI

The core teaming engine is a server feature.  It is not licensed for or included in Windows 8 or Windows RT; there is no way to enable it on these operating systems.

Besides price, are there any big detractors from using Server 2012 as a Workstation?  Convert your Windows Server 2012 to a Workstation!  The reason I ask is I have an M6600 laptop with huge drives, lots of memory, and changes a lot that I back up at night.  I'd like to Team 802.11 AC and 1G copper to backup to the SAN.

Microsoft should consider including the Teaming feature with Win 8 Pro / Enterprise clients. I currently run a HP Z210 Workstation with 3 NICs, I have Just replaced the 2008R2 Server OS (Running Hyper-V Hypervisor) with Win8. 

On my 2K8R2 build I had the following NIC assignments:

NIC 1 - OS / Management

NIC 2 & 3  - Teamed (HP Teaming Driver) assigned as my Hyper-V Switch 

After rebuilding the Z210 with Win 8, I discovered the native teaming feature (available in  Server 2012) was not included in the Win 8 client (very disappointed!). I then tried the HP Teaming driver and discovered that is does  not work with Win 8. As I'm reluctant to again  install a Server OS on my desktop,  I'm left with no suitable options for teaming.    

Given  Hyper-V (v3) offers some nice features  around VM Migration / Replication across networks, Microsoft should strongly consider offering more advanced networking features like Teaming with their high end Win 8 clients.   

What is the best solution to enable network on windows 8 with HYPER-V on laptop?

When the virtual switch connected to NIC with copper all works OK, but when I disconnect the copper and use Wi-Fi the child OS do not see the network!

That's sort of off-topic for this thread, but here's a quick sketch of how that can work.

Hyper-V creates switches that can connect a guest OS to the outside world. A switch is placed over zero or one physical adapter in the host. So if you have copper working well, then your switch must be over the physical Ethernet NIC. You should create a second virtual switch, and put the new switch over your wireless NIC. (Use virtmgmt.msc). Then add a synthetic network card to the guest VM, and attach that NIC to the new switch you just created.

Note that when Hyper-V is placed over a wireless NIC, it converts that NIC into Ethernet before exposing it to the guest VM. So the guest doesn't see wireless networks and etc.; it just sees an Ethernet NIC that's connected when the host's wireless NIC is connected.

Finally, I use this configuration on my gown computer, so I know it works. But my wireless AP did not like the MAC address "spoofing" that appeared to be coming from the guest's DHCP requests, so I had to tweak the DHCP broadcast mode. 

If we could create Teaming by using copper and wireless cards on the laptop then the HYPER-V will see one network card and will connect to the virtual switch.

By the way, is it possible to Team together network cards that have different speeds?

That's sort of off-topic for this thread, but here's a quick sketch of how that can work.

Hyper-V creates switches that can connect a guest OS to the outside world. A switch is placed over zero or one physical adapter in the host. So if you have copper working well, then your switch must be over the physical Ethernet NIC. You should create a second virtual switch, and put the new switch over your wireless NIC. (Use virtmgmt.msc). Then add a synthetic network card to the guest VM, and attach that NIC to the new switch you just created.

Note that when Hyper-V is placed over a wireless NIC, it converts that NIC into Ethernet before exposing it to the guest VM. So the guest doesn't see wireless networks and etc.; it just sees an Ethernet NIC that's connected when the host's wireless NIC is connected.

Finally, I use this configuration on my own computer, so I know it works. But my wireless AP did not like the MAC address "spoofing" that appeared to be coming from the guest's DHCP requests, so I had to tweak the DHCP broadcast mode. 

• Edited by Jeffrey Tippet [MSFT]Microsoft employee Monday, July 08, 2013 8:39 PM typo

It is possible to "team" together copper and wireless.  We don't call that "teaming" anymore, since the two have different physical media characteristics -- this is the "network bridging" feature.  Open ncpa.cpl, select two adapters, right-click, and select the Bridge option.

Officially, we don't support teaming network cards that have different speeds.  However, nothing stops you, and in practice it works reasonably well.  The support statement just means that if you call Microsoft support with a problem with that team, they'll say "sorry, we can't support teaming network adapters of different speeds".

i am trying to team a dual intel nic with intel features. Anyhow, I can create a nic but the Teamed Adapter cant be activated. =/ ideas?

Intel has its own teaming software. Google it.