Using AutoYaST To Create And Configure Network Bond Devices

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1

Situation

Automatic creation of network bond devices when AutoYaST is used for installation.

Bond devices are used for network link aggregation and fail-over.

Resolution

Configuring The Component Devices

When creating bond devices, it is important to ensure that the network devices used for the bond device won't be
set to start at boot time and have their boot protocol set to "none". An example of the AutoYaST configuration for
doing so for eth0 is:

      <interface>
        <bootproto>none</bootproto>
        <device>eth0</device>
        <name>Virtual Ethernet Card 0</name>
        <startmode>off</startmode>
      </interface>

This is required for each network device that will be a component of a bond device.

Configuring The Bond Device

In addition to the standard configuration requirements for a network interface, the configuration of
the bond device itself must designate the device as the bonding master, specify the name of the device
(typically bond<x>, where <X> is the number of the bond device), provide the bonding options to be
used, and list the network devices to bond.

An example configuration of a bond device composed of eth0 and eth1 is :

      <interface>
        <bonding_master>yes</bonding_master>
        <bonding_module_opts>mode=balance-rr miimon=100</bonding_module_opts>
        <bonding_slave0>eth0</bonding_slave0>
        <bonding_slave1>eth1</bonding_slave1>
        <device>bond0</device>
        <bootproto>dhcp</bootproto>
        <startmode>auto</startmode>
        <usercontrol>no</usercontrol>
      </interface>

A complete example of the network interface section of the AutoYaST configuration for a bond device would look like:

    <interfaces config:type="list">
      <interface>
        <bonding_master>yes</bonding_master>
        <bonding_module_opts>mode=balance-rr miimon=100</bonding_module_opts>
        <bonding_slave0>eth0</bonding_slave0>
        <bonding_slave1>eth1</bonding_slave1>
        <device>bond0</device>
        <bootproto>dhcp</bootproto>
        <startmode>auto</startmode>
        <usercontrol>no</usercontrol>
      </interface>
      <interface>
        <bootproto>none</bootproto>
        <device>eth0</device>
        <name>Virtual Ethernet Card 0</name>
        <startmode>off</startmode>
      </interface>
      <interface>
        <bootproto>none</bootproto>
        <device>eth1</device>
        <name>Virtual Ethernet Card 1</name>
        <startmode>off</startmode>
      </interface>
    </interfaces>

Details of bond options

Disclaimer

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