IFCFG-BONDING(5)

NAME
ifcfg-bonding - interface bonding configuration

SYNOPSIS
/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-*

Bonding Interfaces
To setup a bonding interface you need a configuration file ifcfg-bond<X> with the usual network settings. But you must add additional variables

BONDING_MASTER
    must be set to 'yes' to identify this interface as a bonding interface

BONDING_SLAVE_<X>
    here you specify the interface name representing the slave network interfaces. Note also: Bonding slave interfaces are reserved for the bonding and are not usable for any another purposes (unlike e.g. interfaces used for VLANs) and the bonding master manages the slaves itself, e.g. it sets the MAC address on the slaves by default. To configure this accordingly, set BOOTPROTO=none in the ifcfg file of each slave interfaces to avoid any IP or link-layer setup on these interfaces. Wicked will apply the link settings (e.g. for fail_over_mode=active) at enslave time.

BONDING_MODULE_OPTS
    contains bonding options. Here you can set interface timeouts or working modes ('mode=active-backup' for backup mode). For additional information take a look into the documentation mentioned at the bottom. Note, that this options are not passed as parameters to the bonding kernel module any more, but set via sysfs interface. This variable will be renamed in the feature.

Example
Example for a bonding interface on eth0 and eth1 using the backup mode
    ifcfg-bond0
       STARTMODE='onboot'
       BOOTPROTO='static'
       IPADDR='192.168.0.1/24'
       BONDING_MASTER='yes'
       BONDING_SLAVE_0='eth0'
       BONDING_SLAVE_1='eth1'
       BONDING_MODULE_OPTS='mode=active-backup miimon=100'
    ifcfg-eth0
       STARTMODE='hotplug'
       BOOTPROTO='none'
       #ETHTOOL_OPTIONS='wol g'
    ifcfg-eth1
       STARTMODE='hotplug'
       BOOTPROTO='none'
       #ETHTOOL_OPTIONS='wol g'
    Note, that the slaves are configured with BOOTPROTO='none', what avoids link set UP and IP configuration of the slaves. Further also STARTMODE='hotplug', allowing that some (all) of the slaves are allowed to be missed at boot time. The hotplug slaves will be added to the bond as soon as are become available (udev BUS based persistent name rule or manual ifup bond0 is required). Wicked waits for the slaves, but when there is no slave available at bonding start time (boot time), the bonding creation will fail and also wicked will report an error.

Additional Information
For additional and more general information take a look into http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/bonding or /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt. Maybe you need to install the kernel sources to get this additional documentation. The configuration of routes for this kind of interface does not differ from ordinary interfaces. See man routes for details.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2014 SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany.

BUGS
Please report bugs at <https://bugzilla.novell.com/index.cgi>

AUTHOR
Wilken Gottwalt -- original bonding man page

SEE ALSO
ifcfg(5), wicked(8).