vbonding

Vbonding, short for virtual bonding, is a network configuration technique used to aggregate multiple network interfaces into a single logical interface. This process enhances network performance, redundancy, and manageability. By combining several physical network interfaces, vbonding can provide increased bandwidth, improved fault tolerance, and better load balancing capabilities.

There are several common bonding modes used in vbonding:

1. Mode 0 (Balance Round Robin): This mode distributes outgoing packets in a round-robin fashion across all available interfaces. It provides load balancing but does not provide fault tolerance.

2. Mode 1 (Active-Backup): In this mode, only one interface is active at a time, with the others in standby mode. If the active interface fails, one of the standby interfaces takes over. This mode provides fault tolerance but does not offer load balancing.

3. Mode 2 (Balance XOR): This mode uses the XOR of the source and destination MAC addresses to determine which interface to use. It provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

4. Mode 3 (Broadcast): This mode sends outgoing packets on all interfaces. It provides fault tolerance but does not offer load balancing.

5. Mode 4 (802.3ad): Also known as Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), this mode dynamically aggregates multiple interfaces into a single logical interface. It provides both load balancing and fault tolerance.

6. Mode 5 (Balance TLB): This mode provides transmit load balancing and receive fault tolerance. Outgoing packets are distributed across all interfaces, while incoming packets are received by the current active interface.

7. Mode 6 (Balance ALB): This mode provides both transmit and receive load balancing. It distributes both outgoing and incoming packets across all interfaces.

Vbonding is commonly implemented in Linux using the bonding driver, which is included in the Linux kernel. The configuration is typically done through the /etc/network/interfaces file or using network management tools like NetworkManager. Proper configuration and monitoring are essential to ensure optimal performance and reliability of the bonded interfaces.