Rob wrote:
Hi,
I have a cluster configured with a master with a large disk and several
diskless clients.
The kernel configuration allows initial bootstrap and NFS mounting of the
file systems via the eth0 ethernet card. The diskless client has another
ethernet card (eth1), which is unused now.
The boot strapping and initial NFS root mounting works via the single
eth0 card.
But I'd like to channel bond the two ethernet cards on the diskless
clients.
As far as I understand, channel bonding requires first to shutdown
the active ethernet card, then configure a bond as the master and
attach the ethernet cards to the bond:
# ifconfig eth0 down
# ifconfig eth1 down
# ifconfig bond0 10.1.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.1.1.255 up
# ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1
However, as soon as I shutdown eth0, the client lost its NFS connection
to the master. I have pulled away the carpet under my own feet....and
the client freezes up.
Is there a way to circumvent this problem?
Can I channel-bond a connection, without shutting down the active
ethernet card?
Thank you.
Rob.
Be warned, I've never done anything like this before, but I *think* this
should point you in the right direction.
In a diskless client, it downloads the kernel and ramdisk from a
server. The kernel then runs the small file system within the ramdisk
before swapping the '/' directory to your NFS root. In my view, you
need to create your own ramdisk which takes down eth0, creates the bond0
interface, and enslaves eth0 and eth1 (probably before nearly every
other operation, but at least before the NFS share is loaded). Then you
could continue to mount the NFS partition, and let the kernel swap the
root file system. After that point, the system should boot normally.
Sorry I can't be any more specific than that, but maybe it'll give you
enough to search for, or maybe another user on the mailing list could
fill in the large gaps.
Justin W
