SharePoint 2010 and proper NIC teaming

Hi All,

I just wanted to write a quick gotcha I ran into when installing SharePoint 2010 (or any application that relies on DNS, for that matter) onto a server with multiple NICs. Proper teaming is crucial because, if the NICs aren't teamed, they will individually report themselves to DNS as the local machine's host name, an example being, each NIC on a server will report itself as MACHINE.DOMAIN.LOCAL. Not a real problem if the application references resources by IP instead of host name, but, if the application references everything by host name, you're in for a real headache, in terms of troubleshooting. If the computer I am using to connect to MACHINE.DOMAIN.LOCAL from has MACHINE's IP as 10.1.1.1 and the 2nd NIC reports to DNS as 10.1.1.2, my IP query fails, not good for an application that relies on constant communication to SQL. Set up NIC teaming before installing applications that rely on AD DNS and you'll save yourself LOTS of trouble.

Duane