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How to create a NIC Channel Bonding in Linux

Summary: This article provides information on how to create a NIC Channel Bonding in RHEL 5.x\6.x.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.

Symptoms

 

Cause

 

Resolution

Environment: RHEL 5.x/6.x

Following the example below will create a NIC Channel Bonding using eth0, eth1 and round-robin policy for fault tolerance and load balancing:

  1. As root, create a Bond0 Configuration File: # vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0
     
  2. Add the following lines to the Bond0 Configuration File:

    DEVICE=bond0
    IPADDR=192.168.1.10
    NETWORK=192.168.1.0
    NETMASK=255.255.255.0
    USERCTL=no
    BOOTPROTO=none
    ONBOOT=yes
    BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100"
Note: Replace IP address, Network and Netmask settings accordingly.
Note: Detailed description of the bonding options can be found in Red Hat's Deployment Guide.
  1. Open the configuration file for eth0:

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

     
  2. Edit eth0 configuration file adding the "MASTER" and "SLAVE" parameters:

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

     
  3. Repeat steps #3 and #4 for eth1.
     
  4. Open the kernel modules configuration file:

    RHEL5 # vi /etc/modprobe.conf

    RHEL6  # vi /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
     
Note: modprobe.conf file does not exist on RHEL6. Following the step listed above, the file will be created.
  1. Add the following line to modprobe.conf file:

    alias bond0 bonding
    options bond0 mode=balance-rr miimon=100

     
  2. Load the bonding Module:

    # modprobe bonding

     
  3.  Restart Network service:

    # service network restart

     
  4. Check if the bonding interface was created successfully looking at the output of the ifconfig command:

    # ifconfig

     
The output should list bond0 up and running as master and eth0\eth1 up and running as slaves.

  

Affected Products

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 6
Article Properties
Article Number: 000177048
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 20 Aug 2024
Version:  6
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