In Windows Server deployments that use Hyper-V with Switch Embedded Teaming (SET) and SMB Direct (RDMA), Microsoft's guidance in Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure is to validate the end-to-end Data Center Bridging (DCB) and RDMA prerequisites with Validate-DCB. The DCB validation covers the exact Windows Server settings RDMA depends on: Priority-based Flow Control (PFC), Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS), QoS policies for SMB (priority tagging), and RDMA enablement on the relevant physical adapters. The study materials emphasize that while tools such as Server Manager, Failover Cluster Manager, or basic adapter inventory (e.g., Get-NetAdapter) can show device status or general configuration, they do not verify the complete, lossless fabric requirements for RDMA over Converged Ethernet used with Hyper-V/SET.
The prescribed approach is to run Validate-DCB against the host NICs participating in the SET team to confirm:
* RDMA is enabled on the interfaces used for SMB Direct.
* PFC is enabled for the SMB priority.
* ETS bandwidth reservations are correctly applied.
* QoS policies align across adapters so SMB traffic is lossless.
The cmdlet produces pass/fail diagnostics and remediation guidance, providing a single authoritative validation for "RDMA and all required Windows Server settings" on each server. Accordingly, the correct choice for verifying the configuration in this scenario is Validate-DCB.