Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:22:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Dan Norris <dannorris@dannorris.com>
Subject: Linux NIC bonding
To: Oracle L <oracle-l@freelists.org>
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I'm building a cluster using Oracle Clusterware and have configured redundant pairs of NICs on the Linux servers using the Linux bonding module (active-passive). I know how to configure the Linux end of things and that's working fine. However, the switches used by this customer (they're Dell branded--not sure who really makes the guts) have been getting "confused" by bonding and our simple ping tests lose about 50% of the packets when we plug the redundant pairs into the two separate (trunked) switches. 

This is only peripherally related to Oracle--it's really a networking and server config issue, but I'm hoping that someone with more networking background than I have can explain what switch configuration will enable this to work properly. The customer has stated that this will never work (though I have done it before at other sites and it worked fine). The customer has stated that the Linux configuration must be two active NICs
 with a virtual IP and virtual MAC. I imagine that will work, but I'm not familiar with that configuration and I don't think Linux has native support for it, so it'd probably be a Broadcom or Intel software package. It's questionable how Oracle would view that from a support perspective (if they care at all). 

So, the question: Is there some "magical" switch setting that would possibly be missing in a fairly "default" configuration that might enable this to work properly? I figure it's a long shot asking a networking question on the Oracle list, but thanks for any pointers.

Dan

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<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">I'm building a cluster using Oracle Clusterware and have configured redundant pairs of NICs on the Linux servers using the Linux bonding module (active-passive). I know how to configure the Linux end of things and that's working fine. However, the switches used by this customer (they're Dell branded--not sure who really makes the guts) have been getting "confused" by bonding and our simple ping tests lose about 50% of the packets when we plug the redundant pairs into the two separate (trunked) switches. <br><br>This is only peripherally related to Oracle--it's really a networking and server config issue, but I'm hoping that someone with more networking background than I have can explain what switch configuration will enable this to work properly. The customer has stated that this will never work (though I
 have done it before at other sites and it worked fine). The customer has stated that the Linux configuration must be two active NICs<br>&nbsp;with a virtual IP and virtual MAC. I imagine that will work, but I'm not familiar with that configuration and I don't think Linux has native support for it, so it'd probably be a Broadcom or Intel software package. It's questionable how Oracle would view that from a support perspective (if they care at all). <br><br>So, the question: Is there some "magical" switch setting that would possibly be missing in a fairly "default" configuration that might enable this to work properly? I figure it's a long shot asking a networking question on the Oracle list, but thanks for any pointers.<br><br>Dan<br></div></body></html>
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