[SLE] SuSE 9.0 Channel Bonding broken, fix and Mini-Howto

From: Randy Rue (rrue_at_fhcrc.org)
Date: 08/30/04

  • Next message: Jostein Berntsen: "Re: [SLE] SuSE 8.1 Install hangs during package installation" 
    Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 09:32:00 -0700
To: suse-linux-e@suse.com

    I apologize for having misposted this on my first try. I've posted it
    again (hopefully correctly this time) so that it will be available to
    anyone searching on it. I've been searching on this topic myself for a
    few days, and have found a lot of other questions but not many answers.

    - rrue

    Hello All,

    After testing it appears that Channel Bonding as shipped in SuSE 9.0 is
    broken. The NIC team appears to load normally but does not survive when
    the wrong cable is disconnected. Specifically, the team switches over
    without a hitch but whichever slave interface was added to the team last
    will not function, and the team won't function until the first NIC is
    reconnected AND the second NIC disconnected (forcing the team to pick
    the first NIC back up). This was confirmed by reversing the order of the
    bonded slave interfaces attached in the "ifenslave" command: changing
    the command from 'ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1' to ifenslave bond0 eth1
    eth0' made the problem reverse itself.

    It looks like the default compile of ifenslave included with SuSE 9.0
    ignores the instructions in
    /usr/src/**kernel_version**/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt and
    compiles using the header file if_bonding.h found in /usr/include/linux
    instead of the proper one in the kernel source directory
    /usr/src/linux/include. Recompiling and replacing the executable makes
    it work. A running ping session stumbles briefly when the active NIC is
    disconnected, but only a few packets are dropped. After about 20-30
    seconds, the connection stabilizes (I have then let it run for as many
    as 1000 pings without dropping any packets).

    The good news is that the proper version of ifenslave now also supports
    mode 6 (adaptive load balancing), providing both fault-tolerance and
    aggregated throughput.

    I have attached a mini-howto below.

    Randy Rue

    Randall Rue
    System Administrator, Postmaster
    IT, Server Operations
    Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
    Seattle, WA
    USA

    NETWORK INTERFACE TEAMING USING KERNEL-BASED CHANNEL BONDING IN SUSE 9.0
    Version 2.0 August 27, 2004

    1. Recompile the executable /sbin/ifenslave (SuSE’s default compile of
    this command calls
    the wrong header files, and will appear to load normally but does not
    function properly):
    a. Find the file "ifenslave.c" using "locate ifenslave.c" and cd to its
    directory.
    b. gcc -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O -I/usr/src/linux/include ifenslave.c
    -o ifenslave
    c. mv /sbin/ifenslave /sbin/ifenslave.orig
    d. mv ifenslave /sbin/ifenslave

    2. Add the following two lines to /etc/modules.conf.local:
    alias bond0 bonding
    options bonding miimon=100 mode=6

    3. Use Yast to configure both Ethernet interfaces as DHCP clients.

    4. Edit /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-ethX for each of the interfaces
    eth0 and eth1 (or
    whatever physical interfaces are to be bonded):
    a. Retain the "Unique=’xxxyyyzzz’" defined by Yast
    b. Otherwise modify the files as shown:
    DEVICE='ethX'
    USERCTL='no'
    ONBOOT='yes'
    STARTMODE='onboot'
    MASTER='bond0'
    SLAVE='yes'
    BOOTPROTO='none'
    UNIQUE=’xxxyyyzzz’

    5. Create a file /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-bond0 with the same
    permissions as the other
    ifcfg-xxx files:
    DEVICE='bond0'
    IPADDR='140.107.xxx.yyy'
    NETMASK='255.255.25x.0'
    NETWORK='140.107.xxx.0'
    BROADCAST='140.107.xxx.255'
    STARTMODE='onboot'
    BOOTPROTO='static'
    USERCTL='no'
    BONDING_MASTER='yes'
    BONDING_SLAVE0='eth0'
    BONDING_SLAVE1='eth1'

    6. Edit /etc/init.d/network: to the end of the "start" case statement
    (approximately line 200),
    add the following two lines as shown.
    Before:
    esac
    rc_reset
    done
    [ ! -z "$WAIT_FOR_INTERFACES" ] && sleep $WAIT_FOR_INTERFACES

    After:
    esac
    rc_reset
    done
    ## Added to start NIC bonding when starting network ##
    /sbin/ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1
    [ ! -z "$WAIT_FOR_INTERFACES" ] && sleep $WAIT_FOR_INTERFACES

    7. Restart the network interfaces ( "rcnetwork restart") and test for
    proper configuration
    using ping, ifconfig and "cat /proc/net/bond0/info"

    8. Reboot the machine and test again for proper configuration.

    9. Start a ping (i.e. ping yahoo.com) and test that the process recovers
    and continues when
    either interface is disconnected. 

    -- 
Check the headers for your unsubscription address
For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com
Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com
Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com
  • Next message: Jostein Berntsen: "Re: [SLE] SuSE 8.1 Install hangs during package installation"

    Relevant Pages