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10.3. Set Up a Bond Device

A Bond aggregates multiple NICs in a parallel manner to provide combined speed that is beyond single NIC speeds. Bonding provides increased fault tolerance by increasing the number of failures required for networking to fail completely. The NICs that form a bond device must be of the same make and model in order to ensure that both devices support the same options and modes.
The packet dispersal algorithm for a bond is determined by the bonding mode used.

Bonding Modes

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization supports the following common bonding modes:
To create a bond device using the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager administration portal
  1. Click the Hosts tab.
  2. Select the host for which a bond device will be created.
  3. Click the Network Interfaces tab in the details pane.
  4. Select the devices that will be included in the bond, ensuring they are all of the same make and model.
    Bond Network Devices.
    Figure 10.3. Bond Network Devices.

  5. Click the Bond button. The Bond Network Interfaces dialog displays.
    Bond Devices Dialogue.
    Figure 10.4. Bond Devices Dialogue.

    Enter the configuration information for the new bond device including:
    • Bond Name: select one from the drop down list.
    • Network: the logical network that the bond device will be a part of.
    • Bonding mode: the bonding mode that provides the desired functionality.
    • IP address assignment mechanism: either DHCP or Static. If static, then IP, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway must all be set manually.
    • Check connectivity: ensure that the bond device is functional upon creation.
    • Save Network Configuration: make the bond device persistent through reboots.
  6. Click the OK. The Events tab displays Bond device created.
Result:
A bond device is listed in the Network Interfaces tab of the details pain for the selected host
To enable bonding on a switch
Bonding must be enabled for the ports that the host uses on the switch it is connected to. The process by which bonding is enabled is slightly different for each switch, consult the manual provided by your switch vendor for detailed information on how to enable bonding.
The following is an bond example configuration for a switch. Your switch configuration may look different.
  interface Port-channel11
  switchport access vlan 153
  switchport mode access
  spanning-tree portfast disable
  spanning-tree bpduguard disable
  spanning-tree guard root
  
  interface GigabitEthernet0/16
  switchport access vlan 153
  switchport mode access
  channel-group 11 mode active
 
  interface GigabitEthernet0/17
  switchport access vlan 153
  switchport mode access

Important

For every type of switch it is important to set up the switch bonding with the Link Aggregation Control Protocol(LACP) protocol and not the Cisco Port Aggregation Protocol(PAgP) protocol.