Bond Ethernet Devices

You can bond Ethernet devices to suit your networking requirements. For example, you might set-up two Ethernet devices as an active/redundant pair.

For help creating and updating bonding files through the CLI, see Using the CLI in the Red Hat Networking Guide.

Important

We recommend that when setting up a bond, you set up both eth0 and eth1 with static IP addresses and with eth0, eth1 and bond0 all on the same subnet.

Prerequisites

Before you begin this process, make sure that you've done the following:

• Added to AWS Elemental Statmux the Ethernet devices that you're bonding.

Step A: Create Bond Configuration File

Create a configuration file for the bond interface and name it after the bond.

To create the bond configuration file

1. Create the file with the following command.

   sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

2. Insert the following settings in the file:

   • DEVICE – Type bond0.

   • TYPE – Type Bond.

   • NAME – Provide a name for the bond that's unique among your bonded interfaces, such as bond0.

   • BONDING_MASTER – Type yes.

   • BOOTPROTO – If you're using a static IP address for the bond, type none. If you're using DHCP, type dhcp.

   • ONBOOT – Type yes.

   • NM_CONTROLLED – Type no.

   • IPADDR – When you're using a static IP address, complete with your networking information.

   • NETMASK – When you're using a static IP address, complete with your networking information.

   • GATEWAY – When you're using a static IP address, complete with your networking information.

   • BONDING_OPTS – Type the bonding mode you're using and other applicable options.

     For a list of additional options, see Creating a Network Bond in CentOS7 and RHEL7 from the CLI.

Bonding modes

The following table describes the bonding modes that are available.

Bonding Mode Option	Mode Name	Description
mode=0	Round robin	Transmissions are received and sent sequentially on each bonded interface, beginning with the first one available.
mode=1	Active backup	Transmissions are received and sent out via the first available bonded interface. The other interface is only used if the active interface fails.
mode=2	Balanced XOR	Using the exclusive-or (XOR) method, the interface matches up the incoming request's MAC address with the MAC address for one of the bonded interface NICs. Once this link is established, transmissions are sent out sequentially, beginning with the first available interface.
mode=3	Broadcast	All transmissions are sent on all interfaces in the bond.
mode=4	IEEE 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation	This option creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. This transmits and receives on all interfaces in the active aggregator. Requires a switch that is 802.3ad compliant.
mode=5	Adaptive transmit load balancing	Outgoing traffic is distributed according to current load on each interface in the bond. Incoming traffic is received by the currently active interface. If the receiving interface fails, another interface takes over the MAC address of the failed interface.
mode=6	Adaptive load balancing	This option includes transmit and receive load balancing for IPV4 traffic. Receive load balancing is achieved through ARP negotiation.

DEVICE=bond0
TYPE=Bond
NAME=bond0
BONDING_MASTER=yes
BOOTPROTO=none                              
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=no
IPADDR=192.168.1.70
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
BONDING_OPTS="mode=5 miimon=100"

Step B: Edit Ethernet Interface Configuration Files

Access the configuration files for each of the interfaces that are participating in the bond. Add the following lines.

MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes

For help creating and updating bonding files through the CLI, see Using the CLI in the Red Hat Networking Guide.

Step C: Restart the AWS Elemental Service Configuration Files

Restart the AWS Elemental service using the following command.

sudo systemctl restart network

Step D: Verify the Bond

Verify that your bond is running using the following command.

cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

Example Functioning bond interface

[elemental@host~]$ cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver: v3.7.1 (April 27, 2011)

Bonding Mode: transmit load balancing
Primary Slave: None
Currently Active Slave: eth0
MII Status: up
MII Polling Interval (ms): 100
Up Delay (ms): 0
Down Delay (ms): 0

Slave Interface: eth0
MII Status: up
Speed: 10000 Mbps
Duplex: full
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:50:56:b8:64:44
Slave queue ID: 0

Slave Interface: eth2
MII Status: up
Speed: 10000 Mbps
Duplex: full
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:50:56:8d:8e:db
Slave queue ID: 0
[elemental@host~]$