In the modern world of technology, service continuity and network redundancy are necessary. Therefore, keeping the core network services like DNS and DHCP up and running is extremely important. To make that happen NIC bonding, or teaming can be used.
NIC Bonding
Network bonding is a method of combining or joining two or more network interfaces into a single interface. It offers enhancements and redundancy by increasing the network throughput and bandwidth. If one interface is down or disconnected, the other one will work. It can be used when you need fault tolerance, redundancy, or load balancing networks. In Linux, a particular kernel module named bonding connects multiple network interfaces into a single interface. Two or more network interfaces can be combined into a specific logical "bonded" interface. The conduct of the bonded interfaces depends on the type of bonding method used.
NIC Bonding in TCPWave Environment
If the TCPWave appliance is connected to one NIC and if this connection happens to be faulty, then the name resolution in the enterprise could experience a potential disruption of service. To avoid a single point of failure (SPOF) from a network connectivity perspective, a dual NIC model with a logical bonding is recommended by seasoned DNS architects and engineers. This is a best practice. A properly engineered solution would be that an appliance needs to be connected to different redundant switches, with a logical NIC referencing two physical NICs via a bonding method listed in the table below. Performing this activity will ensure the network naming and provisioning services (DNS and DHCP) operate at a 100% SLA (Service Level Agreement)
TCPWave provides an extra edge facility of the NIC bonding to the network administrators to serve multiple NICs with the same IP address.
NIC Bonding Configuration
In NIC bonding, different parameters need to be defined, such as mode and extra attributes.
Types of Network Bonding
Mode
Policy
Description
Fault Tolerance
Load balancing
0
Round Robin
In this mode, the packets are sequentially transferred or received through each interface one by one.
No
Yes
1
Active Backup
In this mode, one NIC is active and the other NIC is inactive. If the active NIC goes down, the other NIC becomes active. This mode is supported in x86 environments.
Yes
No
2
XOR [exclusive OR]
In this mode, the MAC address of the slave NIC is matched up against the incoming request's MAC. Once the system establishes the connection, the same NIC is used to transmit or receive for the destination MAC.
Yes
Yes
3
Broadcast
In this mode, all the transmissions are sent on all slaves
Yes
No
4
Dynamic Link Aggregation
In this mode, the aggregated NICs act as one NIC which results in higher throughput, but also provides failover in the case that a NIC fails. Dynamic Link Aggregation requires a switch that supports IEEE 802.3ad.
Yes
Yes
5
Transmit Load Balancing (TLB)
In this mode, the outgoing traffic is distributed depending on the current load on each slave interface. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails, then the other slave takes over the MAC address of the failed slave.
Yes
Yes
6
Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)
Unlike Dynamic Link Aggregation, Adaptive Load Balancing does not require any particular switch configuration. Adaptive Load Balancing is only supported in x86 environments. The receiving packets are load-balanced through ARP negotiation.
Yes
Yes
Additional Parameters Configuration
ONBOOT=yes: This parameter ensures that the network interface is activated at boot time.
NM_CONTROLLED=no: This setting specifies that the network interface should not be controlled by the Network Manager service.
BOOTPROTO=static: Indicates that the network interface uses a static IP address configuration.
To configure the NIC bonding on TCPWave appliances, the network administrators must enable additional interfaces. By default, a TCPWave appliance has eth0 as its management interface. Users can configure additional NICs from the TCPWave IPAM GUI.
Note: Ensure the interfaces are connected to switch ports in the case of hardware appliances. In the case of VM, ensure the required interfaces are added to the VM in the Virtual environment.
Click sync network interface and select the option IPAM to Remote, the system updates the network interface configurations on the TCPWave appliance.
Click to add the interface. Add the configuration as shown in the below screenshot. Ensure the following while adding an interface for an appliance from IPAM:
The device name must start with 'eth'.
IP Address must not be pingable.
One IP Address cannot be associated with two or more NICs.
If the IP address has already been defined as an object type - TCPWave Remote/TCPWave IPAM, then network, mask, broadcast fields are auto-populated.
Click OK to save the network configuration.
Creating Bonded Interface
To create NIC bonding, select the two interfaces that need to be bonded (use the Ctrl key for choosing multiple interfaces).
Click and add bondX interface details.
Select the 'Is Management IP' checkbox to use the bonded interface as the management interface.
If you want to use another IP address altogether as the bonded interface IP, use the checkbox 'Use New IP Address for Bonding'; else choose one of the interface's IPs as the bonded interface IP.
Click OK to save the network interface bonding. The system displays the bonded interface configuration as shown.
Conclusion
Network resiliency is an extremely critical component to accommodate for while planning a robust and fault-tolerant DDI ecosystem. Provisioning an additional layer of resiliency at the network connectivity level by clubbing two physical interfaces into a bonded interface will eliminate a disruption caused due to a bad network port, a bad cable, a switch failure, etc. The seamless integration and the ease of use, that's engineered in the core TCPWave IPAM, makes it a relatively simple task to perform engineering with perfection. To learn more about NIC configuration, contact the TCPWave Sales Team.
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