Swapping out a NIC on a WHS-2011 (or Win 2008 R2)

[BonzaiDuck]

I need to free up the PCI-E slot currently occupied by my Intel Pro NIC in my WHS-2011 box. I can either swap in the onboard nForce G-bit NIC on the mobo, or I can add a PCI Trendnet G-bit NIC I had in my parts locker.

Everything in that rig is working perfectly -- but I need to add USB3 to the system with a PCI-E x1 card, arriving tomorrow.

The NIC's connection has a fixed IP address. The connector software is installed on all the workstations/laptops in the house. WHS wakes the other systems after midnight for the nightly client backups, which then return to sleep/hibernate afterward. I really don't want any complications with the hardware swap.

I'm thinking I could first install the driver to the second NIC without disabling the first. Then, disable the Intel Pro and create a new "connection" with the same fixed IP and other settings. After assuring that everything is working tip-top, I'd then uninstall the Intel Pro NIC, remove it, add the USB3 controller to the PCI_E slot, install the driver software -- and hopefully that would be the happy end to it.

I really don't want to go through a spate of complications over connections to the workstations or anything else. I would think I could just swap the NICs and drivers, set up the system so that the Wake-on-LAN and other features are enabled as before, and expect everything to work without more complications.

Any thoughts about this before I proceed?

 

[Compman55]

What are you asking exactly? If the network card you are adding has drivers for WS2K8R2 or windows 7, it will be almost painless.

Where this becomes a problem is if you have a really awsome server motherboard with integrated NIC's that are fully featured, and you try to slap in an el cheapo $19 desktop card that is featureless, you will be dissapointed. Make sure the card you buy is a hardware based one.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Shouldn't be a big deal. Just unplug cable from old NIC, reconfigure new NIC with same IP address, verify that everything works, power off server, swap cards, and turn back on.

The only risk is that you might have weird behavior from some of the applications on the server if you have the network unavailable for any length of time. But that's application-specific.