I'm wondering both in general terms and specifically with regards to link aggregation.

Only if you have lots of clients needing multiple simultaneous access beyond what one link can provide

...well, technically unRAID does only support a single NIC...if you want NIC teaming, you'll have to tweak this yourself.

 

Then, at first - assuming GBit speed for the first NIC - unRAID will in most UseCases not use up this bandwidth, as a single stream is limited to he performance of the disk it is read from.

Secondly, a teamed NIC will not enhance the bandwidth for a single connection, if will deliver a benefit for concurrent connections only.

 

So, if you run a setup where you have a lot of clients, accessing different files at once/concurrently, you *might* have a benefit.

If you want more speed for a single connection (and if you have an array made of SATA3 SSDs), you'd better go for a single 10GB NIC

(but again, unRAID does not come with a driver for these).

 

Edit: support will depend on your unRAID version you are running...check the features of 5.04 release if an upgrade will deliver what you need.

Interface bonding is supported in the official release of unRAID. Different modes are supported.

 

If I remember correctly, the driver for Intel 10G is included, but then again I might be wrong.

Interface bonding is supported in the official release of unRAID. Different modes are supported.

 

If I remember correctly, the driver for Intel 10G is included, but then again I might be wrong.

 

...good to know. Thanks.

So for users on older versions there is an upgrade path which makes things more simple for sure.

It is worth pointing out as it is not immediately obvious unless you just know.... even if you bond NICs a single client session is limited to the speed of one NIC. To use more bandwith you need multiple clients and/or sessions.

 

Bonding is cool but most people dont need it. It is great that it is there for those that do.