On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Alex Dean <alex@crackpot.org> wrote:

On May 6, 2010, at 5:12 PM, Lisa Kachold wrote:

It's my understanding that NIC bonding under 2.6 kernels using modern modules is limited to a single IP address using multiple interfaces (without any IP address configuration).

The bonding driver can create a single virtual interface comprised of multiple physical interfaces. You end up with bond0, bond1, etc alongside eth0, eth1, etc. How many IP addresses you configure on top of that bonded interface is up to you.

Does anyone know of a way to bond say eth0:1 (configured with an IP address that allows additonal virtualhosts binding for Apache2/TomCat or 3 Tier J2EE servers?

I don't think I understand the question. You want to have multiple IP addresses for your bonded interface? No problem. When you configure your IP address, just set it up as bond0:1, bond0:2, etc. I'm not sure if there's any upper limit on the # of IPs you can configure. If you want multiple Apache virtual hosts, that can be done on a single IP address (for name-based hosting) or on many IP addresses. Maybe you could describe in a little more detail what you're trying to achieve?

Thanks, yes that's exactly what was needed!

Advanced multiple IP address bonding would look like this under UBUNTU LTS 9.04:

# Network interfaces IvedaSolutions.com 2010

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Primary net external
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
        address 72.206.106.30
        gateway 72.206.106.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        slaves eth3 eth5
        bond-mode 1
        bond-miimon 100
        broadcast 74.206.106.255
        dns-nameservers 208.69.38.150
        dns-search ivedasolutions.com

# Public virtual network interface
auto bond0:1
iface bond0:1 inet static
        address 74.206.106.252
        gateway 74.206.106.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        slaves eth3 eth5
        bond-mode 1
        bond-miimon 100
        broadcast 74.206.106.255
        dns-nameservers 208.69.38.150
        dns-search ivedasolutions.com

Reference: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-bond-or-team-multiple-network-interfaces-nic-into-single-interface.html

Just make sure you stress-test your configuration. I've seen a lot of dropped packets with some NICs in round-robin bonding mode. I think you might need to do some switch configuration to make that work reliably under load. The main bonding mode I've worked with is active/passive, which doesn't get you any extra throughput. You've just got an instant backup if your primary NIC dies somehow. The bonding driver supports 6 different modes you can research to find the one which works best for you.

Thanks, yes! I have extensive experience with switches doing all manner of things with interface bonding using anything but a limited failover and without miimon, and a perfectly respectable well engineered network driver, even autoneg on simple switch interfaces is impossible.

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/bonding