Network Card teaming in Linux

[michael fenton]

Hi All,

I've just installed Linux Redhat ES 4 update 4 on a DL380 G5 Server and updated with the Proliant support pack (PSP) .How do I team network cards .Does the PSP install a network management tool for doing this? I cannot see it.

(Unfortunately my knowledge of Linux is petty limted and this is my first installation)

Any help would be appreciated

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Hello Michael,

I am not into RHEL;

This was the only I got:

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/27392.html

Its for update 3 & not 4;


Regards,
James.

[Chris Rosan]

Bonding is really easy in linux. I've got BL25's and BL45's bonded now on Redhat 4.4.

Look for the file:

/usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-2.6.9/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt

Config files will be somewhere like /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices (you can type "locate eth |grep etc" to find them easily - or you can use the redhat tool "system-config-network" to set one eth interface up, and then search for it (after running "updatedb".

You need to set the actual NIC's (eth0, eth1)
as something like this:

DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
TYPE=Ethernet

Then make a config file in the same directory called "ifcfg-bond0" with something like this:

DEVICE=bond0
IPADDR=IPADDR
NETMASK=MASK
NETWORK=NETWORK
BROADCAST=BROADCAST
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
TYPE=Ethernet

You also need to make the bonding module load by adding "alias bond0 bonding".

You also need to tell the config how to determine if a link has failed. There are a number of options.

Check out the txt file above for the full info.

Once you think you've got it right, reboot. Make sure you've got ilo working or a monitor/keyboard on the server in case you get it wrong.

Let me know if you have any problems.