[CentOS-virt] [Advice] CentOS6 + KVM + bonding + bridging

Thu Sep 6 16:19:35 UTC 2012
SilverTip257 <silvertip257 at gmail.com>

With the current talk on bonding, I have a few questions of my own.


I'm setting up a KVM host with CentOS 6.3 x86_64 on which I'd like to
attach the VMs to a bonded interface.
My target setup is one where two GigE NICs are bonded and then the KVM
bridge interface is attached to the bonded interface.

Initially I tried to use the balance-alb mode (mode6), but had little
luck (receiving traffic on the bond appeared to be non-functional from
the perspective of a VM).  After some reading [0] [1] - I switched the
mode to balance-tlb (mode5) and hosts are now reachable.

See bottom of [0] for a note on "known ARP problem for bridge on a
bonded interface".

I'd prefer mode5 or 6 since it would balance between my slave
interfaces and need not worry about 802.3ad support (mode4) on the
switch this host will be connected to.  But the way it seems mode 6
isn't going to work out for me.  (Maybe experimenting with mode4 is
the way to go.)

[0] http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/HOWTO_BONDING
[1] https://lists.linux-foundation.org/pipermail/bridge/2007-April/005376.html


My question to the members of this list is what bonding mode(s) are
you using for a high availability setup?
I welcome any advice/tips/gotchas on bridging to a bonded interface.


Thanks!
---~~.~~---
Mike
//  SilverTip257  //