Setup network bonding using YaST2 lan module

This document (3752896) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Service Pack 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 1

Situation

With Service Pack 1 for SLE 10 it is possible to configure network bonding with the YaST2 lan module.

Resolution

Start YaST2 and start the Network Card module
In the Network Setup Method select 'Traditional method with ifup' and press next to enter the'Network Card Configuration Overview'
This provides an overview about the available network devices to configure.
Select the device to configure first and press edit
First set the device to'None Address Setup'
On the 'General' tab set the'Device Activation' status to 'Never'
Press 'Next' to finish the first device.
Continue steps 5 until 7 for the devices which shall be added to the bond device. All devices will be listed in the 'Network Card Configuration Overview' without address.
Once all network cards are'configured', press the 'Add ' button in the 'Network Card Configuration Overview'. This will start the 'Manual Network Card Configuration'.
Select as device type 'bond' and press next.
Now the bond device can be configured like a normal network card. From the 'Bond Slaves' listing one can select the NICs belonging to the bonded device. If a device is not listed here but was configured, it probably was set to the wrong activation mode.
The 'Bond Driver Options' field can be used to pass options to the bond device. Press 'Next' to finish the setup.
The bonded device should now be listed in the 'Network Card Configuration Overview'

Additional Information

For more information on the bonding topic in conjunction with SLE 10 please seeTID 3929220 - How To Configure Bonding on N0vell Linux productsand thebonding.txtwhich is included with thekernel-sourcepackage. This package can be installed using YaST2; the file is located at/usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt.

Disclaimer

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