Create Network Bonds using Network Manager CLI

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Create Network Bonds using Network Manager CLI

Introduction

A network bond groups multiple physical network interfaces on a system into a single logical group interface and is connected to a network switch. Bonding can facilitate higher connection availability through redundancy by maintaining the connection if a link in the bond group fails. Also, the aggregation of the physical network interface provides higher throughput by load balancing the traffic across the interfaces in the bond.

Objectives

This lab demonstrates using the Network Manager CLI (nmcli) utility to:

  • Create a bond interface
  • Add multiple physical interfaces as links in the bond interface group
  • Change the bond mode used for monitoring the status and the distribution of traffic across the bond interface links
  • Delete the bond interface

Prerequisites

  • A cloud instance system with current release Oracle Linux installed

Create the Bond Interface

The instance used in this lab environment is an Oracle Linux cloud instance, with four network interfaces available. It is possible to create a bond interface using three of these network interfaces. All interfaces are on the same virtual cloud network private subnet.

Note: A free video demonstrating how the bond interface is created is available by following the link in the For Additional Information section at the end of the tutorial.

  1. Follow the instruction in Oracle Linux Lab Basics to establish an SSH connection and log in to the lab system instance.

    The following sections show how to make the SSH connection to the instance.

    • Copy Public IP Address
    • Connect to Oracle Linux Instance
    ssh oracle@<ip address of instance>
  2. Create a bond interface. Set the bond connection name to Bondconn1, and the interface name as bond0.

    sudo nmcli connection add type bond con-name "Bondconn1" ifname bond0
  3. View the new bond created.

    sudo nmcli connection

    Example output:

    NAME       UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE 
    Bondconn1    6a5605dc-49ad-4f8d-8e10-7c130b95aba7  bond      bond0  
    System ens3  21d47e65-8523-1a06-af22-6f121086f085  ethernet  ens3 
  4. View the bond configuration file to see detailed information for the new bond interface.

    sudo nmcli connection show "Bondconn1"

    Note: Use the 'space' key to continue to the next page of information in the output. Use the 'q' key to exit the output and return to the command line.

    Partial example output:

    connection.id:                          Bondconn1
    connection.uuid:                        e8092374-4397-4452-bc55-2f64c506b518
    connection.stable-id:                   --
    connection.type:                        bond
    connection.interface-name:              bond0
    connection.autoconnect:                 yes
    connection.autoconnect-priority:        0
    connection.autoconnect-retries:         -1 (default)
    connection.multi-connect:               0 (default)
    ...
    ...
    bond.options:                           mode=balance-rr
    proxy.method:                           none
    proxy.browser-only:                     no
    proxy.pac-url:                          --
    proxy.pac-script:                       --
    GENERAL.NAME:                           Bondconn1
    GENERAL.UUID:                           37845378-f29a-4b10-8107-49b9f5a0f564
    GENERAL.DEVICES:                        bond0
    GENERAL.IP-IFACE:                       --
    GENERAL.STATE:                          activating
    ...
    ...
    connection.master:                      --
    connection.slave-type:                  --
    connection.autoconnect-slaves:          -1 (default)
    connection.secondaries:                 --
    connection.gateway-ping-timeout:        0
    connection.metered:                     unknown
    connection.lldp:                        default
    connection.mdns:                        -1 (default)
    connection.llmnr:                       -1 (default)
    connection.wait-device-timeout:         -1
    ipv4.method:                            auto
    lines 1-25

    Become familiar with finding information in the output such as the bond ID, the UUID, the interface name, IP settings, and note the bond mode used.

Change the Bond Mode

The bond mode indentifies how the bond interface distributes traffic over its links and how it handles the failure of one or more links in the bond group by altering the behavior of load-balancing and device failover.

  1. Change the bond mode used by the bond interface from Round Robin to Active Backup using the bond.options "mode=active-backup" command option.

    sudo nmcli connection modify Bondconn1 bond.options "mode=active-backup"

    Note: The modes supported are the default Round Robin (balance-rr), Active Backup (active-backup), XOR (balance-xor), Broadcast (broadcast), 802.3ad (802.3ad), Adaptive transmit load balancing (balance-tlb) and Adaptive load balancing (balance-alb).

    Find more details of how the various bond modes operate here:

    Document: Oracle Linux - Working With Network Bonding

  2. View the detailed information for the new bond interface to see the changed bond mode.

    sudo nmcli connection show "Bondconn1"

    Partial example output:

    ...
    ...
    ...
    cipv6.dhcp-timeout:                      0 (default)
    ipv6.dhcp-send-hostname:                yes
    ipv6.dhcp-hostname:                     --
    ipv6.dhcp-hostname-flags:               0x0 (none)
    ipv6.token:                             --
    bond.options:                           mode=active-backup
    proxy.method:                           none
    proxy.browser-only:                     no
    proxy.pac-url:                          --
    lines 56-80
  1. View the network device interface information on the system.

    sudo nmcli device

    Example output:

    DEVICE   TYPE      STATE                                  CONNECTION  
    ens3     ethernet  connected                              System ens3 
    bond0    bond      connecting (getting IP configuration)  Bondconn1   
    ens5     ethernet  disconnected                           --          
    ens6     ethernet  disconnected                           --          
    ens7     ethernet  disconnected                           --
    lo       loopback  unmanaged                              --

    Listed are the bond interface and four network devices. The devices ens5, ens6, ens7 are listed as 'disconnected'. These devices can be used as interface links for the bond interface.

  2. Add the interface ens5 as a link for the bond interface group.

    sudo nmcli connection add type ethernet slave-type bond con-name bond0-if1 ifname ens5 master bond0

    Example output:

    Connection 'bond0-if1' (56e98603-099c-46d1-acd5-1268e4ef9005) successfully added.
  3. Add the interface ens6 as a second link for the bond interface group.

    sudo nmcli connection add type ethernet slave-type bond con-name bond0-if2 ifname ens6 master bond0

    Example output:

    Connection 'bond0-if2' (577a9de4-43f4-46c7-9b29-dc51ef0f7c65) successfully added.
  4. View the network device interface information on the system.

    sudo nmcli device

    Example output:

    DEVICE  TYPE      STATE                                  CONNECTION  
    ens3    ethernet  connected                              System ens3 
    ens5    ethernet  connected                              bond0-if1   
    ens6    ethernet  connected                              bond0-if2   
    bond0   bond      connecting (getting IP configuration)  Bondconn1   
    ens7    ethernet  disconnected                           --          
    lo      loopback  unmanaged                              --

    The two links are now associated with the bond interface.

Configure IP Address to the Bond interface

By default the bond is configured to use DHCP. IP address assignment, gateway and network resolution information can be configured to the logical bond interface.

  1. Use the command ip addrto verify that bond0 reports its status as UP.

    ip addr

    Example output:

    17: bond0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,MASTER,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 02:00:17:09:f8:b0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet6 fe80::cd09:f18d:f202:3ae4/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    • If the output shows bond0 as DOWN, then run the command sudo nmcli connection up "Bondconn1" to change its state to UP.

      sudo nmcli connection up "Bondconn1"

      Example output:

      Connection successfully activated (master waiting for slaves) (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/61)
  2. Assign the IP address and subnet mask of '192.168.1.10/24' to the bond0 interface with the ipv4.addresses command option.

    sudo nmcli connection modify "Bondconn1" ipv4.addresses '192.168.1.10/24'
  3. Set the IP address assignment method to manual. This configures the IP address and mask for the bond interface.

    sudo nmcli connection modify "Bondconn1" ipv4.method manual
  4. View the layer three network information for the system.

    The bond0 interface now has an assigned the IP address.

    ip addr

    Partial example output:

    33: bond0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,MASTER,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
        link/ether 00:00:17:01:2f:ef brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
        inet 192.168.1.10/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global noprefixroute bond0
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
        inet6 fe80::5149:fd05:55e5:9eff/64 scope link noprefixroute 
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
  1. Assign the last unassigned network device ens7 to the bond0 interface.

    sudo nmcli conn add type ethernet slave-type bond con-name bond0-if3 ifname ens7 master bond0

    The command output shows the bond interfaces was added successfully.

  2. View the network device interface information on the system.

    sudo nmcli device

    Example output:

    DEVICE  TYPE      STATE      CONNECTION  
    ens3    ethernet  connected  System ens3 
    bond0   bond      connected  Bondconn1   
    ens5    ethernet  connected  bond0-if1   
    ens6    ethernet  connected  bond0-if2   
    ens7    ethernet  connected  bond0-if3   
    lo      loopback  unmanaged  --

    The output shows the third network device connected to the bond interface.

  3. View the bond configuration information.

    This shows information about the bond, it's status, as well as the link interfaces in the bond group and their status.

    cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

    Example output:

    Ethernet Channel Bonding Driver: v3.7.1 (April 27, 2011)
    
    Bonding Mode: load balancing (round-robin)
    MII Status: up
    MII Polling Interval (ms): 100
    Up Delay (ms): 0
    Down Delay (ms): 0
    Peer Notification Delay (ms): 0
    
    Slave Interface: ens5
    MII Status: up
    Speed: Unknown
    Duplex: Unknown
    Link Failure Count: 0
    Permanent HW addr: 02:00:17:09:f8:b0
    Slave queue ID: 0
    
    Slave Interface: ens6
    MII Status: up
    Speed: Unknown
    Duplex: Unknown
    Link Failure Count: 0
    Permanent HW addr: 00:00:17:02:a1:10
    Slave queue ID: 0
    
     Slave Interface: ens7
    MII Status: up
    Speed: Unknown
    Duplex: Unknown
    Link Failure Count: 0
    Permanent HW addr: 02:00:17:03:f1:3a
    Slave queue ID: 0

    The output shows the bond configuration and status, including which bond links are active, their information and their status.

To remove the bond interface, first remove the bond links.

Caution: Do not delete a bond interface with active interface links connected to it.

  1. Use the command sudo nmcli connection delete and add the bond link interface name. Begin by removing the bond0-if3 connection and then repeat the action for the remaining bond interfaces.

    Note: The order in which the bond links are deleted is not important.

    sudo nmcli connection delete bond0-if3

    Example output:

    Connection 'bond0-if3' (5751ef04-43f4-46c7-9b29-dc51ef0f7c65) successfully deleted.
    sudo nmcli connection delete bond0-if2

    Example output:

    Connection 'bond0-if2' (577a9de4-43f4-46c7-9b29-dc51ef0f7c65) successfully deleted.
    sudo nmcli connection delete bond0-if1

    Example output:

    Connection 'bond0-if1' (56e98603-099c-46d1-acd5-1268e4ef9005) successfully deleted.
  2. Use the command sudo nmcli device to verify the devices have been disconnected.

    sudo nmcli device

    Example output:

    DEVICE  TYPE      STATE         CONNECTION  
    ens3    ethernet  connected     System ens3 
    bond0   bond      connected     Bondconn1   
    ens5    ethernet  disconnected  --          
    ens6    ethernet  disconnected  --          
    ens7    ethernet  disconnected  --          
    lo      loopback  unmanaged     -- 

Delete the Bond Interface

Before deleting the bond interface, set the connection to the down state with the sudo nmcli connection down command.

  1. Transition the bond interface.

    sudo nmcli connection down "Bondconn1"

    Example output:

    Connection 'Bondconn1' successfully deactivated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/86)
  2. Use the command ip addr to verify the bond interface has been removed.

    ip addr

    The output shows the bond interface is no longer listed.

  3. Use the command sudo nmcli connection delete along with the bond interface name to delete the bond interface.

    sudo nmcli connection delete "Bondconn1"

    Example output:

    Connection 'Bondconn1' (a3d42efc-52ba-474a-9eea-67a4342420df) successfully deleted.
  4. Use the command sudo nmcli connection to verify.

    sudo nmcli connection

    Example output:

    NAME         UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE 
    System ens3  21d47e65-8523-1a06-af22-6f121086f085  ethernet  ens3

    The output shows the only connection is ens3.

  5. View the bond configuration file.

    cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
    cat: /proc/net/bonding/bond0: No such file or directory

    Note: Deleting the bond interface also removes its configuration file.

For Additional Information

See other related resources:

SSR