GenerationIP

Type : System
Operating System : Redhat,Fedora,Centos

This Howto explain how to install the Bonding or the Teaming solution on a RedHat distribution. One of the goal of the teaming and bonding solution is to use all networks interfaces for backup or round robin solution.

The bonding need to work with a minimum of 2 NIC to have real goal.

The concept of NIC Bonding (or sometimes called NIC Teaming) is that you have two NICs bonded together to create only one physical device.

|                                            |
|port3                                  port3|
+-----+----+                                 +-----+-----+
|          |port2                      port2 |           |
| switch A +---------------------------------+ switch B  |
|          |                                 |           |
+-----+----+                                 +-----+-----+
|port1                                  port1|
|                 +-------+                  |
+-----------------+ host1 +------------------+
eth0 +-------+ eth1

Before attempting to bond two NICs, i recommended to verify the integrity and functionality of each NIC. Please check your interface status with ethtool:

#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: 0x00000007 (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: 0x00000007 (7)
Link detected: yes

Now the Interface seems to be good for the configuration, we have to ckeck if you have all kernel modules.

#modprobe --list | grep bonding

/lib/modules/2.6.*/kernel/drivers/net/bonding/bonding.ko

#modprobe --list | grep mii

/lib/modules/2.6.*/kernel/drivers/net/mii.ko

Your server seems to be ready fot the configuration of the module for a backup connection:

#vi /etc/modprobe.conf

alias bond0 bonding
options bond0 miimon=80 mode=1

To have more information about the bonding module you have to do this command line.

In bold font you have the main status for the bonding function.

#modinfo bonding
author: Thomas Davis, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and many others
description: Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver, v3.1.2
version: 3.1.2
license: GPL
srcversion: 6CD19765D6431C07199456E
depends:
vermagic: 2.6.18-53.1.4.el5xen 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)
module_sig: 883f350474fb1b5bf23bf4d191725311298f009e2cbe4ce27b13fd747fc988615153453d50a29aff0a08158d98a7570129eb3197be02aebeaf52d9aebe

miimon is use for the monitoring of each ethX each 80 milliseconds, but you can use also a arp_ip_target like this other configuration for this module.

#vi /etc/modprobe.conf

alias bond0 bonding
options bond0 mode=1 arp_ip_target=192.168.1.1 arp_interval=200 primary=eth0

This configuration use arp resquest on the primary interface each 200ms

Now the kernel module is configure and we have to load thoses modules :

#modprobe bonding

#modprobe mii

All modules are loaded and ready for the configuration of each NIC

Configuration of eth0:

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-script/ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
USERCTL=no

Configuration of eth1

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-script/ifcfg-eth1

DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
USERCTL=no

Configuration of bond0

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-script/ifcfg-bond0

DEVICE=bond0
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.1.5
USERCTL=no

Now to finish the installation we have to applied the network parameters.

#/etc/init.d/network restart

Your bonding is now operational.

We have to test the bonding interface :

# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver: v3.1.2 (January 20, 2007)

Bonding Mode: fault-tolerance (active-backup)
Primary Slave: None
Currently Active Slave: eth0
MII Status: up
MII Polling Interval (ms): 80
Up Delay (ms): 0
Down Delay (ms): 0

Slave Interface: eth0
MII Status: up
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:XX:XX:XX:XX:c2

Slave Interface: eth1
MII Status: up
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:XX:XX:XX:XX:c4

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