Channel Bonding Question

[Andrew Klaassen]

On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 09:29:18AM -0600,
Jared Hodge wrote:

> I was wondering if it is possible to link two ethernet NICs
> (channel bonding, sort of) on our server to work together
> talking to a single switch.  I've lately come to realize that
> most work with channel bonding requires two entirely separate
> networks, but what I want to do is connect the two NICs two
> the switch (Cisco Catalyst) and allow it to effectively
> communicate with two of the nodes at full speed at the same
> time.  I guess that this would be more along the lines of line
> trunking or multi-link or some other networking scheme.  If
> anyone knows of any links that describe how to do this, I
> would appreciate it.  Thanks.

No link, but here are the config files we need in order to make
this work on a Redhat box (from the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory):

---ifcfg-bond0---
DEVICE=bond0
BOOTPROTO=static
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
IPADDR=192.168.0.181
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.0.0
ONBOOT=yes

---ifcfg-eth0---
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
ONBOOT=yes

---ifcfg-eth1---
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=static
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
ONBOOT=yes

And, in /etc/modules.conf:

alias bond0 bonding

The switch also needs to be set up for this.  We've got an HP
and a Foundry switch both doing it; one calls it "Fast
EtherChannel" (originally a Cisco term?), the other "Trunking",
and the Linux box "bonding".  Setup was pretty straightforward
once I figured out where in the switch manuals everything was...

Andrew Klaassen