Managing HP Serviceguard for Linux Ninth Edition, April 2009

loaded system when necessary) you can do so by putting each service in its own package
and giving it a unique IP address.
Bonding of LAN Interfaces
Several LAN interfaces on a node can be grouped together in a process known in Linux
as channel bonding. In the bonded group, typically one interface is used to transmit
and receive data, while the others are available as backups. If one interface fails, another
interface in the bonded group takes over. HP strongly recommends you use channel
bonding in each critical IP subnet to achieve highly available network services.
Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) do not have to be identical. Ethernet LANs must be the
same type, but can be of different bandwidth (for example 1 Gb and 100 Mb).
Serviceguard for Linux supports the use of bonding of LAN interfaces at the driver
level. The Ethernet driver is configured to employ a group of interfaces.
Once bonding is enabled, each interface can be viewed as a single logical link of multiple
physical ports with only one IP and MAC address. There is no limit to the number of
slaves (ports) per bond, and the number of bonds per system is limited to the number
of Linux modules you can load.
You can bond the ports within a multi-ported networking card (cards with up to four
ports are currently available). Alternatively, you can bond ports from different cards.
HP recommends that use different cards.Figure 3-17 shows an example of four separate
interfaces bonded into one aggregate.
74 Understanding Serviceguard Software Components