For the detailed manual of bonding configuration on RHEL6, please refer to,

• Deployment Guide - Channel Bonding Interfaces
• Deployment Guide - The Channel Bonding Module

Note : Ensure that Network Manager is not running on the system, as NM does not support bonding :

service NetworkManager stop

chkconfig NetworkManager off

• To configure the bond0 device with the network interface eth0 and eth1, perform the following steps:

  1.  Create a new file as root named bonding.confin the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory.  Insert the following line in this new file:

alias bond0 bonding

  2.   Create the channel bonding interface file  ifcfg-bond0 in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory:

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

DEVICE=bond0

IPADDR=192.168.50.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100"

Note:

• Configure the bonding parameters in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0, as above, BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100".
• The behavior of the bonded interfaces depends upon the mode. The mode 0 is the default value, which causes bonding to set all slaves of an active-backup bond to the same MAC address at enslavement time. For more information about the bonding modes, refer to The bonding modes supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  3.   Configure the ethernet interface in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.  Both eth0 and eth1 should look like the following example:

DEVICE=eth<N>

BOOTPROTO=none

HWADDR=54:52:00:26:90:fc

ONBOOT=yes

MASTER=bond0

SLAVE=yes

USERCTL=no

Note:

• Replace <N> with the numerical value for the interface, such as 0 and 1 in this example. Replace the HWADDR value with the MAC for the interface.
• Red Hat suggest that configure the MAC address of the ethernet card into the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>.

  4.   Restart the network service:

# service network restart

Note: It may be necessary to disable NetworkManager if you find that bonding is not working properly. To do this, you would run the following:

  5.   In order to check the bonding status, check the following file:

# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

 

Configuring multiple bonding channels is similar to configuring a single bonding channel. Setup the ifcfg-bond<N> and ifcfg-eth<X> files as if there were only one bonding channel. You can specify different BONDING_OPTS for different bonding channels so that they can have different modes and other settings. Refer to the section 4.2.2. Channel Bonding Interfaces in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Deployment Guide for more information.

To configure the bond0 device with the ethernet interface eth0 and eth1, and configure the bond1 device with the Ethernet interface eth2 and eth3,  perform the following steps:

  1.  Create configuration file /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf with the following lines:

alias bond0 bonding

alias bond1 bonding

  2.   Create the channel bonding interface files ifcfg-bond0 and ifcfg-bond1, in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory:

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

DEVICE=bond0

IPADDR=192.168.50.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100"

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond1

DEVICE=bond1

IPADDR=192.168.30.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

BONDING_OPTS="mode=1 miimon=50"

Note: there are different bonding modes for bond0 and bond1. For the bond0 device, it is the balance-rr policy (mode=0).  For the bond1 device, it is thefail_over_mac policy (mode=1). More information about the bonding modes please refer to The bonding modes supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

   3.   Configure the ethernet interface in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.  Both eth0 and eth1 should look like the following example:

DEVICE=eth<N>

BOOTPROTO=none

HWADDR=54:52:00:26:90:fc

ONBOOT=yes

MASTER=bond0

SLAVE=yes

USERCTL=no

Note:

• Replace <N> with the numerical value for the interface, such as 0 and 1 in this example. Replace the HWADDR value with the MAC for the interface.
• Red Hat suggest that configure the MAC address of the ethernet card into the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>.

  4.   Restart the network service:

# service network restart

  5.   In order to check the bonding status, check the following file:

# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

For the detailed manual of bonding configuration on RHEL5, please refer to,

• Deployment Guide - Channel Bonding Interfaces
• Deployment Guide - The Channel Bonding Module

To configure the bond0 device with the network interface eth0 and eth1, perform the following steps:

  1.   Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias bond0 bonding

  2.   Create the channel bonding interface file  ifcfg-bond0 in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory:

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

DEVICE=bond0

IPADDR=192.168.50.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100"

Note:

• Configure the bonding parameters in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0, as above, BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100".
• The behavior of the bonded interfaces depends upon the mode. The mode 0 is the default value, which causes bonding to set all slaves of an active-backup bond to the same MAC address at enslavement time. For more information about the bonding modes, refer to The bonding modes supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  3.   Configure the ethernet interface in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.  Both eth0 and eth1 should look like the following example:

DEVICE=eth<N>

BOOTPROTO=none

HWADDR=54:52:00:26:90:fc

ONBOOT=yes

MASTER=bond0

SLAVE=yes

USERCTL=no

Note:

• Replace <N> with the numerical value for the interface, such as 0 and 1 in this example. Replace the HWADDR value with the MAC for the interface.
• Red Hat suggest that configure the MAC address of the ethernet card into the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>.

  4.   Restart the network service:

# service network restart

  5.   In order to check the bonding status, check the following file:

# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 (or update to initscripts-8.45.25-1.el5) and later, configuring multiple bonding channels is similar to configuring a single bonding channel. Setup the ifcfg-bond<N> and ifcfg-eth<X> files as if there were only one bonding channel. You can specify different BONDING_OPTS for different bonding channels so that they can have different modes and other settings. Refer to the section 15.2.3. Channel Bonding Interfaces in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Deployment Guide for more information.

To configure the bond0 device with the ethernet interface eth0 and eth1, and configure the bond1 device with the Ethernet interface eth2 and eth3,  perform the following steps:

  1.   Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias bond0 bonding

alias bond1 bonding

  2.   Create the channel bonding interface files ifcfg-bond0 and ifcfg-bond1, in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory:

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

DEVICE=bond0

IPADDR=192.168.50.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100"

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond1

DEVICE=bond1

IPADDR=192.168.30.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

BONDING_OPTS="mode=1 miimon=50"

Note: there are different bonding modes for bond0 and bond1. For the bond0 device, it is the balance-rr policy (mode=0).  For the bond1 device, it is thefail_over_mac policy (mode=1). More information about the bonding modes please refer to The bonding modes supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

   3.   Configure the ethernet interface in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.  Both eth0 and eth1 should look like the following example:

DEVICE=eth<N>

BOOTPROTO=none

HWADDR=54:52:00:26:90:fc

ONBOOT=yes

MASTER=bond0

SLAVE=yes

USERCTL=no

Note:

• Replace <N> with the numerical value for the interface, such as 0 and 1 in this example. Replace the HWADDR value with the MAC for the interface.
• Red Hat suggest that configure the MAC address of the ethernet card into the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>.

  4.   Restart the network service:

# service network restart

  5.   In order to check the bonding status, check the following file:

# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

For a detailed manual for bonding configuration on RHEL4 , please refer to,

• Section 8.2.3 "Channel Bonding Interface"
• Section 22.5.2. "The Channel Bonding Module"

To configure the bond0 device with the network interface eth0 and eth1, perform the following steps,

  1.   Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.conf,

alias bond0 bonding

options bonding mode=1 miimon=100

Note:

• Configure the bonding parameters in the file /etc/modprobe.conf. It is different from the configuration of RHEL5. The configuration on RHEL5 you configure all bonding parameters in the ifcfg-bond<x> by passing them in the BONDING_OPTS= variable, while in RHEL4 you need to pass those in the modprobe.conf using 'install'  syntax.
• For the mode=1, it is the fail_over_mac policy mode. More information about the bonding modes please refer to The bonding modes supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

2.   Create the channel bonding interface file in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory, ifcfg-bond0

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

DEVICE=bond0

IPADDR=192.168.50.111

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

USERCTL=no

BOOTPROTO=none

ONBOOT=yes

3.   Configure the ethernet interface in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>. In this example, both eth0 and eth1 should look like this:

DEVICE=eth<N>

BOOTPROTO=none

HWADDR=54:52:00:26:90:fc

ONBOOT=yes

MASTER=bond0

SLAVE=yes

USERCTL=no

Note:

• Replace the <N> with the numerical value for the interface, such as 0 and 1 in this example. Replace the HWADDR value with the MAC for the interface.
• Red Hat suggest that you configure the MAC address of the ethernet card into the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>.
• The "54:52:00:26:90:fc" is the hardware address (MAC) of the Ethernet Card in the system.

To configure multiple bonding channels on RHEL4, first set up the ifcfg-bond<N> and ifcfg-eth<X> files as you would for a single bonding channel, shown in the previous section.

Configuring multiple channels requires a different setup for /etc/modprobe.conf. If the two bonding channels have the same bonding options, such as bonding mode, monitoring frequency and so on, add the b option. For example:

alias bond0 bonding

alias bond1 bonding

options bonding max_bonds=2 mode=balance-rr miimon=100

If the two bonding channels have different bonding options (for example, one is using round-robin mode and one is using active-backup mode), the bonding modules have to load twice with different options. For example, in /etc/modprobe.conf:

install bond0 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install bonding -o bonding0 mode=0 miimon=100 primary=eth0

install bond1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install bonding -o bonding1 mode=1 miimon=50 primary=eth2

If there are more bonding channels, add one install bond<N> /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install bonding -o bonding<N> options line per bonding channel.

Note: The use of -o bondingX to get different options for multiple bonds was not possible in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 GA and 4 Update 1.

After the file /etc/modprobe.conf is modified, restart the network service: