Setting Up Network Bonding

Bonding multiple network interfaces together provides the following benefits:

1. High network availability. If one of the interfaces fails, the traffic will be automatically routed to the working interface(s).
2. Higher network performance. For example, two Gigabit interfaces bonded together will deliver about 1.7 Gbps or 200 MBps throughput. The required number of bonded storage network interfaces may depend on how many storage drives are on the Hardware Node. For example, a rotational HDD can deliver up to 1 Gbps throughput.

To configure a bonding interface, do the following:

1. Create the /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf file containing the following line:

   1	alias bond0 bonding

2. Create the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0 file containing the following lines:

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   DEVICE=bond0 ONBOOT=yes BOOTPROTO=none IPV6INIT=no USERCTL=no BONDING_OPTS="mode=balance-xor xmit_hash_policy=layer3+4 miimon=300 downdelay=300 \ updelay=300" NAME="Storage net0" NM_CONTROLLED=yes IPADDR=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx PREFIX=24

   Make sure to enter the correct values in the IPADDR and PREFIX lines.
   

   The balance-xor mode is recommended, because it offers both fault tolerance and better performance. For more details, see the documents listed below.

3. Make sure the configuration file of each Ethernet interface you want to bond (e.g., /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0) contains the lines shown in this example:

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   DEVICE="eth0" BOOTPROTO=none NM_CONTROLLED="yes" ONBOOT="yes" TYPE="Ethernet" HWADDR=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx MASTER=bond0 SLAVE=yes USERCTL=no

4. Bring up the bond0 interface:

   1	# ifup bond0

5. Use dmesg output to verify that bond0 and its slave Ethernet interfaces are up and links are ready.