Interface Bonding - Putting it all together

What is bonding?

Bonding protocol - Wikipedia 

Generally speaking, in the Linux world, this action combines multiple physical interfaces into one or more logical interface.

Why you may want to bond?

TipsAndTricks/BondingInterfaces - CentOS Wiki 

Bonding is useful in many instances such as fault tolerance (redundancy), aggregation, and load balancing.

Modes/Tpes include:

   mode=1 (active-backup)

   mode=2 (balance-xor)

   mode=3 (broadcast)

   mode=4 (802.3ad)

   mode=5 (balance-tlb)

   mode=6 (balance-alb)

Process:

1. Configure bonding (note- the system will expect eth0 for the bond.  I would recommend you use eth0 for the bonding process)

2. Run nwsetup-tui to implement the new eth0 bond.

From command line on the host being bonded.

Login = root

Password = your_password

Ifconfig -a

Ensure that em1, em2, em3, em4, and lo are visible

Em3 and Em4 are fiber

       Em3 + Em4 = Eth0 (both of the fiber ports will be bonded into one)

modprobe --first-time bonding

Enables the bonding

This will load the drivers

modinfo bonding

Check that bonding has been enabled

cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

Vi ifcfg-eth0 to create the file and put the follow information in… use the IP for the bond here.  Also, here is where the mode will be set.

TYPE=Bond
BONDING_MASTER=yes
PREFIX=26
BONDING_OPTS="mode=1 miimon=100"
NAME=eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=10.x.x.x
NETMASK=255.255.255.192
GATEWAY=10.x.x.x
NM_CONTROLLED=no
ONBOOT=yes
PEERDNS=no

Save

Save

vi ifcfg-em3

Ensure em3 has the following

BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes

Add to the bottom of the file

MASTER=eth0
SLAVE=yes

Save or quit if no changes -- typically slave will need to be added.

vi ifcfg-em4

Ensure em4 has the following

BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes

Add to the bottom of the file

MASTER=eth0
SLAVE=yes

Save or quit if no changes -- typically slave will need to be added.

      (Optional) Ensure em1 or the management interface used

vi ifcfg-em1
ONBOOT=no

vi ifcfg-em2
ONBOOT=no

Save or quit

service network restart

Ensure that "bonding: eth0 is being created" …

cat /proc/net/bonding/eth0

Ensure all the devices are listed - eth0, em3, em4

Speed
Bonding Mode: fault-tolerance (active-backup)
Copper = 1000
Fiber = 10000

Disable IPv6

vi /etc/sysctl.conf

append

ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1

sysctl -p

Disable em1 and em2

echo "DEVICE=em1" > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1 && service network restart
echo "DEVICE=em2" > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em2 && service network restart

Reboot and make sure everything comes up properly.

Once the system comes login as root and run the following:

nwsetup-tui

When the network section appears choose eth0 and provide the network information.  Finish the setup and validate everything is working properly.

Please let me know your thought or suggestions.