[K12OSN] Bonding 3 networkcards and 3 switches.

[Terrell Prude' Jr.]

You really should get a switch with at least one Gbit port.  TuxType and 
TuxMath have both been measured over the years to use just under 73 
Mbits/sec, per session.  You don't have to buy Cisco or any other "Rolls 
Royce" brand like that, but fortunately switches are less money now.

Seriously, I'd take the case up and say "hey, we need to juggle money 
from *somewhere* for this."

Now, that said, channel bonding does work.  Cisco calls it 
"EtherChannel", and the Linux version of channel bonding is compatible 
(I did it some years ago).  However, your switching architecture must 
also support it.  In your case, it doesn't look like it does.

The other way to do it is to go ahead and connect each NIC to each 
switch.  I've done this before, too, and it works very well.  You will 
need to have a separate IP subnet per NIC.  For example, you could do 
the following:

eth0:  192.168.0.0/24
eth1:  192.168.1.0/24
eth2:  192.168.2.0/24

and you would make entries in /etc/hosts as appropriate.  You'd also 
make appropriate DHCP scopes in /etc/dhcpd.conf or whatever K12Linux 
uses now.  I used this method to get x86, PowerPC, and UltraSPARC thin 
clients all running off the same K12LTSP server a few years back.  I 
scored some major coolness points for that one.  :-)

It's really not "hard" to do.  It's simply a matter of paying attention 
to detail and knowing what's needed.  Let us know if you run into issues.

--TP


jan nilsen wrote:
> So, I have a server with a 1gbit NIC, and 3 16-ports switches (all
> 100mbit ports), that are linked togheter the old switch-in-switch
> style, and I have about 45 clients (mix of thinclients, workstations
> and laptops).
>
> When most of the machines are in use, I notice that having only
> 100mbit out of the server is not enough.
>
> So I can either buy myself a 48 port switch with 1gbit uplink with
> money we don't have (we realy don't have any money),
> or I thought I could try this "bonding" thing.
>
> I can put 3 network cards in the server, and connect each of those
> networkcards with it's own 16-port switch, that way I would have
> 300mbit out of the server.
>
> What kind of bonding mode should I choose?
>
> Or is there some other way?
>
> jan
>
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