A server technician is replacing a web server in an organization. The new server has two integrated NICs. Which of the following describes how the NICs should be configured for fault protection?

Two separately configured NICs cannot share one MAC address - duplicate MACs on the same network segment cause address conflicts and communication failures.

NIC teaming (also called bonding or link aggregation) groups multiple NICs into one logical adapter with a single shared MAC address. This allows the network switch to treat the team as a single device, so if one NIC fails the other takes over without any IP or MAC address change visible to the network. This is the standard method for fault-tolerant NIC configuration on servers.

Two separately configured NICs with independent MAC addresses provide no fault protection because there is no failover mechanism binding them together.

A NIC team with two separate MAC addresses defeats the purpose of teaming because the network switch would treat them as two unrelated devices, so a single NIC failure would still disrupt its associated traffic flow.