Ethernet Port Trunk DL380 G5 / RHEL 5

[Yanick Quirion]

Dear all

I want to know if that is possible to create a port trunk with the two ethernet interfaces available on my DL380 G5 server under Redhat Enterprise Linux 5.

On the switch it's easy to do, but from the server, is it only software or it can be also hardware? I was unable to find reliable documentation on google about this.

Thank you for you help.

Regards,
Yanick

[Ivan Kuznetsov · Accepted solution]

Hello!

It is possible and simple. Under Linux trunks technology named "bonding". There are several types of trunks under Linux (load balancing/fault tolerance). Some of them requires switch configuration, some not.

Please read "Linux Ethernet Bonding Driver HOWTO" at file bonding.txt. It can be located at /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-$kernel-version/Documentation/networking directory (you need to have kernel-doc package installed)

HP ProLiant servers has a good network adapters works fine with bonding


Regards, Ivan Kuznetsov

[Yanick Quirion]

Thank you Ivan for your help.

However I'm wondering what options I need to use to have a full 2GB link using my 2 ethernet adapters. On my switch, I setup a "trunk" with the two ports.

Thanks again,
Yanick

[Ivan Kuznetsov]

Hello!

Unfortunately "trunk" can means different for different network hardware vendors. E.g. Cisco describes a port as trunk if it carries traffic for multiple VLANs (IEEE 802.1q or ISL). Linux "bonding" Cisco calls as "EtherChannel port grouping". There are some standard and proprietary bonding protocols (LACP IEEE 802.1ad, Fast EtherChannel, Cisco Port Aggregation Protocol and so on). Different vendors supports different sets of protocols. Please consult your switch manual
It is recommended to read part 6 of "Linux Ethernet Bonding Driver HOWTO" too

You can use "mode=balance_tlb or mode=balance_xor" settings for Linux bonding module if not sure about switch capabilities

Regards, Ivan Kuznetsov