Is Etherchannel actually needed on a Cisco switch when configuring NIC teaming on a server?

As per subject: I have some HP servers that support NIC teaming (O.S. is Windows Server 2008 R2), and I have a Cisco switch that supports Etherchannel.

Do I need to configure a channel on the switch for teamed NICs of each server in order to take fully advantage of NIC teaming, or is this simply not needed?

I've tried searching around (even on this site!), but I've found quite contradictory answers.

I'm not worried about having to configure the switch, if this is going to provide actual benefits; my main concern is about how this would subsequently force me (or some other people which may even not know at all what an Etherchannel is) to connect each server to specific switch ports in order for it to work. The whole "switch ports are not all equal" thing is something I'd very like to avoid, unless it provided real benefits.

Solution 1:

It depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want an active/passive team, then you shouldn't have to configure anything on the switch. If you want to configure an active/active team and your NICs support 802.3ad/802.1ax, then you should configure etherchannel on your switch.

The bottom line is that it depends on what kind of teaming you want to do and what your NICs support. Most will support active/passive, only some truely support 802.3ad/802.1ax.