Configure Bonded Network Interfaces

You can configure bonded network interfaces for redundancy from the command line. The following instructions show how to create an active-backup bond, which keeps one interface active and the other as a passive backup. If the active interface fails, the backup interface takes over automatically.

The example commands use the two 1G onboard NICs available on the E50 and E60 servers (eno8303 and eno8403), and assume that the eno8303 interface is already configured and working as the management interface.

Run these commands using SSH or directly on the terminal.

Create the bond interface

In this example, bond0 is the name of the bond interface being created.

sudo nmcli connection add type bond con-name bond0 ifname bond0 bond.options "mode=active-backup"

Add the slave interfaces

In this example, eno8303 and eno8403 are added as slave interfaces.

sudo nmcli connection add type ethernet slave-type bond con-name bond0-eno8303 ifname eno8303 master bond0
sudo nmcli connection add type ethernet slave-type bond con-name bond0-eno8403 ifname eno8403 master bond0

Configure the IP address of the bond interface

The bond interface IP address can be allocated via DHCP or assigned statically.

• To use DHCP:

  sudo nmcli connection modify bond0 ipv4.method auto

• To assign a static IP address, use the values currently assigned to eno8303. For example:

  sudo nmcli connection modify bond0 ipv4.addresses 192.168.1.42/24 ipv4.gateway 192.168.1.1 ipv4.dns "192.168.1.99,192.168.1.98" ipv4.method manual

Activate the bond interface

sudo nmcli connection down eno8403 && sudo nmcli connection down eno8303 && sudo nmcli connection up bond0

Remove the non-slave connections

Removing non-slave connections prevents them from conflicting with the bond at reboot or after an upgrade.

sudo nmcli connection delete eno8403
sudo nmcli connection delete eno8303

Configure the firewall

Firewall zone for bonded interfaces can be set on the UI in Beam 1.9 and later. See Configure network interfaces.

• For bonded management ports, set the firewall zone to control:

  sudo nmcli connection modify bond0 connection.zone control && sudo nmcli connection up bond0

• For bonded data ports, set the firewall zone to data:

  sudo nmcli connection modify bond0 connection.zone data && sudo nmcli connection up bond0

The bonded network interface configuration persists on reboot and upgrade when you follow the instructions above.

Rebooting after configuration is recommended to confirm that networking continues to function after a reboot or power failure.