IP Bonding or Teaming in Linux – RHEL 5
IP Bonding or Teaming is a method of combining all the network interfaces togather into one with one of the types like Network Fault Tolerance, Round Robin, Back up, Loadbalancing etc. So it looks virtually as a single interface to the outside world providing high availability, based on the type you have set. Means, in a Network fault tolerant type one will take over if other fails and in a Load Balancing type trafic is shared when one busy to the other.
I got a chance of doing IP bonding in a HP Proliant Servers running RHEL 5. Everthing went well with no issues. Let me share my experience with my blog readers. In linux IP bonding is quite simple and is done with some kernel modules and no extra package is to be installed. In Windows, bonging or teaming is done with some software. With HP server, it can easily be done with some HP Network Configuration Uitlities.
Two establish IP bonding you need a minimum of two nework interfaces
Step 1:Check your network interfaces
#ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: g
Current message level: 0×00000007 (7)
Link detected: yes#ethtool eth1
Settings for eth1:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: g
Current message level: 0×00000007 (7)
Link detected: yes
Step 2: Check all the requiured kernel modules are available(bonding and mii)
#modprobe –list | grep bonding
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/bonding/bonding.ko
# modprobe –list | grep mii
/lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/mii.ko
Step 3: Editing the modprobe.conf file
#vim /etc/modprobe.conf
and add the following lines at the end
alias bond0 bonding
options bond0 mode=1 arp_ip_target=192.168.52.1 arp_interval=200 primary=eth0
To know more about the parameters to be used here use the command
#modinfo bonding
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5/kernel/drivers/net/bonding/bonding.ko
author: Thomas Davis, tadavis@lbl.gov and many others
description: Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver, v3.2.4
version: 3.2.4
license: GPL
srcversion: DB2ABCD47A83F8567EBE92B
depends:
vermagic: 2.6.18-92.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1
parm: max_bonds:Max number of bonded devices (int)
parm: miimon:Link check interval in milliseconds (int)
parm: updelay:Delay before considering link up, in milliseconds (int)
parm: downdelay:Delay before considering link down, in milliseconds (int)
parm: use_carrier:Use netif_carrier_ok (vs MII ioctls) in miimon; 0 for off, 1 for on (default) (int)
parm: mode:Mode of operation : 0 for balance-rr, 1 for active-backup, 2 for balance-xor, 3 for broadcast, 4 for 802.3ad, 5 for balance-tlb, 6 for balance-alb (charp)
parm: primary:Primary network device to use (charp)
parm: lacp_rate:LACPDU tx rate to request from 802.3ad partner (slow/fast) (charp)
parm: xmit_hash_policy:XOR hashing method: 0 for layer 2 (default), 1 for layer 3+4 (charp)
parm: arp_interval:arp interval in milliseconds (int)
parm: arp_ip_target:arp targets in n.n.n.n form (array of charp)
parm: arp_validate:validate src/dst of ARP probes: none (default), active, backup or all (charp)
parm: fail_over_mac:For active-backup, do not set all slaves to the same MAC. 0 of off (default), 1 for on. (int)
module_sig: 883f35048175a9e6e24e25c96667c37112449509f5739ebf283efa5295d315b73cee5e956f6e25709cbcf2826571c5ffc20f2d87672bb921d610d7
Step 3: Now load the modules
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#modprobe bonding
#modprobe mii
This will create a bond0 config file in the networks-scripts directory
Step 4: Editting the three configuration files for eth0,eth1,bond0
|# vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0
DEVICE=bond0
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.52.4
USERCTL=no
GATEWAY=192.168.52.1
TYPE=Ethernet
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
#vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
USERCTL=no
TYPE=Ethernet
#vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
USERCTL=no
TYPE=Ethernet
Step5: Restart your networks service
#/etc/init.d/network restart
#ifconfig
Now use ifconfig command to check the, you will look a new interface called bond0 has been created. The ip you set for it is going to be your ip address of the system. Enjoy bonding
