UBUNTU BONDING (teaming) NETWORK INTERFACES

## Install ifenslave
sudo apt-get install ifenslave-2.6

## add bonding module

sudo vi /etc/modules

kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

loop
lp
rtc
bonding

## Stop network to load bonding module
/etc/init.d/networking stop

## Load bonding module
sudo modprobe bonding

## Edit interfaces file and add as you required
vi /etc/network/interfaces
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet manual
bond-master bond0

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet manual
bond-master bond0

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
address 192.168.1.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
bond-mode balance-rr
bond-miimon 100
bond-downdelay 200
bond-updelay 200
bond-slaves eth1 eth2

## Create bonding.conf file and add two lines below
vi /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf
alias bond0 bonding
options bonding mode=0 downdelay=200 updelay=200

## Start network
/etc/init.d/networking start

## To verify bond working 
cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver: v3.7.1 (April 27, 2011)

Bonding Mode: load balancing (round-robin)
MII Status: up
MII Polling Interval (ms): 100
Up Delay (ms): 200
Down Delay (ms): 200

Slave Interface: eth2
MII Status: up
Speed: 1000 Mbps
Duplex: full
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: e0:69:95:ab:2c:54
Slave queue ID: 0

Slave Interface: eth1
MII Status: up
Speed: 1000 Mbps
Duplex: full
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 90:f6:52:03:49:7e
Slave queue ID: 0

## Descriptions of bonding modes

Mode 0

balance-rr

Round-robin policy: Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available slave through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

Mode 1

active-backup

Active-backup policy: Only one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The bond's MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch. This mode provides fault tolerance. The primary option affects the behavior of this mode.

Mode 2

balance-xor

XOR policy: Transmit based on [(source MAC address XOR'd with destination MAC address) modulo slave count]. This selects the same slave for each destination MAC address. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

Mode 3

broadcast

Broadcast policy: transmits everything on all slave interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.

Mode 4

802.3ad

IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slaves in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.

• Prerequisites:
  1. Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed and duplex of each slave.
  2. A switch that supports IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Most switches will require some type of configuration to enable 802.3ad mode.
Mode 5
balance-tlb

Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support. The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each slave. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails, another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.

• Prerequisites:
  • Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed of each slave.
Mode 6
balance-alb

Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of the slaves in the bond such that different peers use different hardware addresses for the server.