Which method is used to detect failures in a NIC team that link-status monitoring alone cannot?

Beacon probing is a method employed in NIC teaming that goes beyond simple link-status monitoring to detect failures more effectively. While link-status monitoring can only identify whether a network link is up or down, it cannot discern issues such as a malfunction in the NIC, a network misconfiguration, or other issues that may not take the link completely down but could still prevent proper communication.

Beacon probing works by sending regular signals (beacons) across each network interface in the team. These beacons help ascertain not only the status of the physical connection but also the actual ability of the NIC to send and receive traffic successfully. If a NIC fails or is unable to communicate despite a good link status, beacon probing can detect this anomaly, allowing for proactive management of the team.

Other methods mentioned, such as link aggregation, health monitoring, and traffic analysis, serve different purposes. Link aggregation combines multiple network connections for higher throughput and redundancy, but does not specifically focus on failure detection like beacon probing. Health monitoring generally refers to assessing the overall health of hosts and resources but does not involve the specific mechanisms to detect link failures in NIC teams. Traffic analysis involves monitoring the data flow across the interfaces to optimize performance but lacks the direct failure detection that beacon probing offers. Thus, beacon probing