A customer wants to use NIC teaming on an ESXi host using a vSphere Standard...

For a customer to use NIC teaming with the "Route based on physical NIC load" load balancing option on an ESXi host using a vSphere Standard Switch, they need vCenter Server. This specific load balancing method is not available on a vSphere Standard Switch without vCenter management, as it requires vSphere Distributed Switch capabilities that are managed via vCenter Server. By installing a vCenter server, the customer can upgrade from vSphere Standard to Distributed Switches and access more advanced features including the desired NIC teaming option.References: VMware vSphere Documentation, Nutanix Bible.