[DL380 G5] Problem with multiple bonds on Red Hat ES 4 64bit

[Tomasz Czlapski]

Hi, I have problem with configuration bonding on red hat enterprise 4 update 5 64bit.
I have kernel buit from sources (trying 2.6.29.3 and 2.6.28.9) and cannot configure two bonding interfaces with different options.
I think the problem is that I can't load bonding module two times (even using different names). The same is happening on stock red hat kernel 2.6.9-55.Elsmp

When I'm trying to load manually bonding for second time I get:
kernel: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP
kernel: last sysfs file: /sys/class/vc/vcsa6/dev

When I'm trying load bonding modules with sysconfig, after reboot I have in var/log/messages:
ifup: /sbin/modprobe device bond1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.
hal.hotplug[3649]: timout(10000 ms) waiting for /class/net/bond1
network: Bringing up interface bond1: failed
kernel: bonding: ARP monitoring set to 1000 ms, validate none, with 1 target(s): X.X.X.X
kernel: bonding: ARP monitoring set to 1000 ms, validate none, with 1 target(s): Y.Y.Y.Y
kernel: sysfs: duplicate filename 'bonding_masters' can not be created
kernel: Modules linked in: bond1(+) bonding cciss
kernel: [] bond_create_sysfs+0xd/0x50 [bond1]
kernel: [] bonding_init+0x349/0x95a [bond1]
kernel: [] bonding_init+0x0/0x95a [bond1]
kernel: Modules linked in: bond1(+) bonding cciss
LOK1WWW2 kernel: [] ? bond_destructor+0x67/0x70 [bond1]
kernel: [] ? bonding_init+0x3af/0x95a [bond1]
kernel: [] ? bonding_init+0x0/0x95a [bond1]

And only first bond is working.
Here is my modprobe.conf (only part about bonding):
alias bond0 bonding
options bond0 mode=1 arp_interval=1000 arp_ip_target=X.X.X.X
install bond1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install bonding -o bond1 mode=1 arp_interval=1000 arp_ip_target=Y.Y.Y.Y

ifcfg-X files are standard taken from documentation without any BONDING_OPTS so I don't think it's necessary to put it here.

Oh, and my kernel is 2.6.28.9 SMP x86_64

I will be grateful for any advices?

Regards
Tomasz

[Tomasz Czlapski]

a little addition, there should be:
alias bond1 bonding in a line before - instal...
the modprobe like this up generate : "device bond1 not seem to be present"

If I add max_bonds=2 in the second line then bond1 is up but with the settings from bond0.

Why bonding module can't be loaded twice? :(

When I try this:
alias bond0 bonding
options bond0 -o bond0 mode=1 arp_interval=1000 arp_ip_target=X.X.X.X
alias bond1 bonding
options bond1 mode=1 arp_interval=1000 arp_ip_target=Y.Y.Y.Y primary=eth3 max_bonds=2

I get unknown parameter for bond0. When I without -o then I get that bond1 is not present.

I'm confused about all this bonding issue.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I suggest a simpler configuration.

Get the IP information out of modprobe.conf and put it where it belongs in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

Why can't you load the module twice? Because it was designed to be loaded once.

SEP

[Tomasz Czlapski]

Hi,

I think my version of init scripts doesn't support BONDING_OPTS in ifcfg-bondX files. I already tried that.
According to bonding.txt in kernel docs there should be a way to load bonding module two times, but with different names (with -o paramater).

Just for sure I'll try again with BONDING_OPTS.
Another thing that I forgot to mention is that bonds doesn't enslaves eth interfaces automatically during boot. I needed to put ifenslave commands in rc.local script.

[Tomasz Czlapski]

I managed with this problem by setting all options manually by sysfs. I wrote a script and put it in the network init script. Anything else didn't work.

I'm curious if anyone else experienced problems with multiple bonds on red hat es 4 u5 64bit.

Regards
Tomasz

[Jean-Yves Picard]

hello,

shouldn't option max_bonds=2 be put twice ?

Jean-Yves

[Tomasz Czlapski]

Hi, I don't think so. The max_bonds option should be used when you want multiple bonds with the same settings as the first one. So if I put max_bonds=2 then bond0 and bond1 will have exactly the same options enabled.
But like I wrote earlier I did a little workaround to made it work.