Set up bonding in RHEL6

Jephe Wu - http://linuxtechres.blogspot.com

Environment: CentOS 6 x86_64 on HP Blade Proliant BL460c G6, 2 builtin broadcom NIC and a NC364m Quad Port 1Gb NIC for c-class BladeSystem
Objective: after using builtin NIC to install OS , then configure bonding for 2 of quad port NIC.
Steps:

1. OS installation
You can download http://mirror.optus.net/centos/6/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.0-x86_64-netinstall.iso and install OS through http URL from Internet.

2. bonding configuration

Firstly, disable network manager if NM is running.
service NetworkManager stop
chkconfig NetworkManager off

a. /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.ruels
make sure it contains all interfaces you have in the system and don't configure bond0 inside.

b. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

configuring ifcfg-bond0 as follows: (assuming ip address is 192.168.0.1)
       
[root@db03 network-scripts]# more ifcfg-bond0
DEVICE="bond0"
BROADCAST="192.168.0.255"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.254"
IPADDR="192.168.0.1"
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
ONBOOT="yes"
USERCTL=no
BONDING_OPTS="mode=0 miimon=100 downdelay=300 updelay=300 max_bonds=4"

note: you must use capital letter for left side variables, especially BONDING_OPTS, otherwise, you might not be able to see slave devices from command output of 'ifconfig'.
Do not configure BONDING_OPTS in /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf as suggested by Redhat.

c. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX

[root@db03 network-scripts]# more ifcfg-eth*
::::::::::::::
ifcfg-eth0
::::::::::::::
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
MASTER=bond0
HWADDR=00:01:02:03:04:00
ONBOOT=yes
SLAVE=yes
USERCTL=no
::::::::::::::
ifcfg-eth1
::::::::::::::
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=none
HWADDR=00:01:02:03:04:01
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=no
::::::::::::::
ifcfg-eth2
::::::::::::::
DEVICE=eth2
BOOTPROTO=none
MASTER=bond0
HWADDR=00:01:02:03:04:02
ONBOOT=yes
SLAVE=yes
USERCTL=no
::::::::::::::
ifcfg-eth3
::::::::::::::
DEVICE=eth3
BOOTPROTO=none
HWADDR=00:01:02:03:04:03
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=no
::::::::::::::
ifcfg-eth4
::::::::::::::
DEVICE="eth4"
HWADDR="00:00:00:00:00:04"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
ONBOOT="no"
::::::::::::::
ifcfg-eth5
::::::::::::::
DEVICE="eth5"
HWADDR="00:00:00:00:00:05"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
ONBOOT="no"
note: we connected network cables for eth0 and eth2 only, so only use these 2 ports for bonding.

d. /etc/modprobe/bonding.conf
[root@db03 network-scripts]# more /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf
alias eth0 e1000e
alias eth1 e1000e
alias eth2 e1000e
alias eth3 e1000e
alias eth4 bnx2x
alias eth5 bnx2x
alias scsi_hostadapter cciss
alias scsi_hostadapter1 lpfc
alias bond0 bonding

3. Testing and debug
a. more /proc/net/bonding/bond0
b. ethtool eth0


4. References
a. RHEL6 deployment guide
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Deployment_Guide/s2-networkscripts-interfaces-chan.html

b. Redhat knowledge base DOC-48159 for 'How do I configure the bonding device on Red Hat Enteprise Linux 6" or search bonding in access.redhat.com knowledge base.