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This article will show how to "bond" two Ethernet connections together to create an auto failover interface.

Bonding

Install packages

First install the ifenslave-2.6 package, necessary to enable bonding:

# apt-get install ifenslave-2.6

Config file for Lenny

When you use Lenny, you have to modify /etc/network/interfaces only.

auto bond0

iface bond0 inet static
    address 10.31.1.5
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    network 10.31.1.0
    gateway 10.31.1.254
    slaves eth0 eth1
    bond_mode active-backup
    bond_miimon 100
    bond_downdelay 200
    bond_updelay 200

For more detail, see /usr/share/doc/ifenslave-2.6/README.Debian and /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt.

Additional Note For Debian Lenny On Sparc (may be applicable on other architectures as well).

# cd /etc/modprobe.d

# cat > aliases-bond
alias bond0 bonding
  options bonding mode=1 arp_interval=2000 arp_ip_target=192.168.3.1
<CTRL-D>

Without this file, you will get a warning when starting up the bonded interface similar to this:.

bonding: Warning: either miimon or arp_interval and arp_ip_target module parameters must be specified, otherwise bonding will not detect link failures! see bonding.txt for details.

And more, if you use Lenny environment which has been upgraded from Etch or older versions, it is strongly recommended to check the result of the following command to check the bonding device mode, because config files for Etch and older versions do not work for Lenny.

cat /sys/class/net/bond0/bonding/mode

Config files for Etch (and older versions)

There are a few config files that need to be edited. Change your /etc/network/interfaces to look like this. You will need to remove the listings associated with the bonded interfaces such as eth0 and eth1. Change the interfaces (ie: eth0; eth1) to match your needs as well as the IP address information

auto bond0

iface bond0 inet static
    address 10.31.1.5
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    network 10.31.1.0
    gateway 10.31.1.254
    up /sbin/ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1
    down /sbin/ifenslave -d bond0 eth0 eth1

Add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/arch/i386

alias bond0 bonding
options bonding mode=1 miimon=100 downdelay=200 updelay=200

Last add this line to /etc/modules

bonding

and run

#update-modules

After this you will need to restart the network service or reboot the system.


CategoryNetwork