Can physical proxy load balance across multiple nics?

[HendersonD]

We have a physical proxy server running Windows Server 2016. This is the current nic setup for three 10gig connections

IP address on Nic1 (10.121.126.87) connected via iSCSI initiator to 10.121.126.190 which is production Nimble array
IP address on Nic2 (10.121.126.187) connected via iSCSI initiator to 10.121.126.193 which is disaster recovery Nimble array
IP address on Nic3 (10.121.125.87) which is the management nic

During backup Nic1 and Nic2 are used since we are using DirectSAN on source and destination
During replication Nic1 and Nic3 are used. We are using DirectSAN on the source side and network mode on the target side with traffic going through vSphere management network

During backup/replication there are times where Nic1 becomes saturated and is dropping packets. We are seeing spikes quite often in the 9.7 to 9.8 Gbps range. Our backup and replication jobs are working and dropped packets just get retransmitted. We have extra 10gig nics on this proxy server and the thought was to press one of them into service and somehow load balance across two 10gig connections to our production nimble array. The production Nimble array has two 10gig connections. Can this be done using something like Microsoft MPIO? Another method?

[Dima P.]

Hello HendersonD,

No unfortunately that wont work: single connection path will be used even with Microsoft MPIO enabled. Thanks!

[bdufour]

i would def get the extra nic into service, and would try MPIO (cant hurt to try, then you know for good and all..). with multiple connections/streams of data hitting storage and the proxy during these jobs, load balancing the connections between nics will likely solve the issue where the one nic becomes over committed. The more paths for data to use, the better performance you will see.

[Dima P.]

In terms of performance I'd rather setup additional backup proxy between source and target and assign it only to the affected backup jobs.

[stubbint]

Are you able to use NIC teaming (LACP) for NIC 1 & 2. If not, can you change the subnet for the NIC2 interface and DR Nimble? (10.121.127.xxx for example)