Interfaces

An interface represents either a physical interface (Ethernet) or a logical interface (VLAN) on the bonder.

Interfaces are required to create interface legs and connected IPs.

Adding, editing, & deleting interfaces

Interfaces are displayed in a table on the bond details page.

To add an interface, click the node-object-add button to the upper-left of the interfaces table. This will open the “add interface” modal.

To edit an interface, click the node-object-edit button. This will open the “edit interface” modal.

To delete an interface, click the node-object-delete button. This will ask for confirmation, and is permanent.

Interface status

To get comprehensive details on a particular interface’s running state, click the caret node-object-caret beside its ID.

This will open the status information dropdown. Here, interface details detected by the bonder at runtime can be found (e.g., if the interface detects carrier, or the detected MTU).

Configuring an interface

Interface configuration options are accessed through the interface add and edit modals.

Type

Bonders can have three different types of interfaces:

  1. Ethernet
  2. VLAN
  3. VXLAN

Ethernet interfaces must exist on the host (they will not be created by bonding). Conversely, VLAN and VXLAN interfaces will be created on the device if they do not exist already, and they will be recreated if they already exist when bonding starts.

VLAN interfaces require an existing Ethernet interface to be defined for use as a trunk device.

VXLAN interfaces on bonders are only supported for configuring dynamic routing protocols.

Ethernet interface options

These options are specific to Ethernet interfaces.

Interface name

The name of the interface on the bonder. Can’t be changed after creation.

Interface mode

This setting controls the interface speed and whether it uses full-duplex or half-duplex communication. Set to auto negotiation by default.

VLAN interface options

These options are specific to VLAN interfaces.

Ethernet interface

The Ethernet interface to use as the trunk device. Can’t be changed after creation.

VLAN tag

The tag ID of this VLAN.

VXLAN interface options

These options are specific to VXLAN interfaces.

VXLANs are like VLANs but much more powerful. See here for an introduction to the technology.

Interface name

The name to give the VXLAN interface on the bonder. Can’t be changed after creation.

VNI

The VXLAN Network Identifier (analogous to a VLAN tag ID).

Ethernet interface

The name of the base interface to use on the bonder.

Unlike VLANs, a base device is not required for VXLANs, and can be changed after creation.

Having a base Ethernet interface allows the VXLAN device to join a multicast group and perform neighbor discovery, instead of requiring peers to be manually added.

Multicast group

The multicast group for the interface to participate in.

A base Ethernet device is required to use multicast. If no multicast group is explicitly set and a base Ethernet device is configured, the 240.0.0.0 group is used.

Source address

The source address to use for this interface.

Must belong to the same IP family (IPv4 or IPv6) as the source address of peer VXLAN devices.

TTL

The TTL to set on packets leaving the interface.

ToS

The ToS to set on packets leaving the interface.

Add endpoint

Configure a peer VXLAN device by VNI, address, and port.

Common interface options

These options can be set for all interface types.

Interface MAC

The MAC address for the interface. This is required when using VLAN interfaces that connect to the same ISP to keep the connection from constantly flapping up and down.

Interface MTU

The MTU for the interface, in bytes. If MTU detection is enabled, this represents the upper bound of possible MTU values that are checked when detecting the path MTU. Reducing this value will speed up detection if the path MTU is less than 1500. If MTU detection is disabled, this field should be provided when the path MTU is less than 1500 and the modem cannot report its MTU to the bonder correctly.

If the bond MTU detection option is disabled, the interface MTU should be set manually in these scenarios:

  1. When connected to a DSL modem in non-bridged mode, where the modem is providing a DHCP address to the bonder
  2. When connected to a mobile broadband leg over Ethernet
  3. Any other environment where the path MTU between the bonder and aggregator is less than 1500 bytes, but the leg is connected via Ethernet with a 1500 byte MTU

We strongly recommend that the bond’s MTU detection option is not disabled, as it handles all these scenarios automatically.

Backwards compatibility

As of 6.4, interface mode is only configurable on Ethernet interfaces. This changes the behaviour of the v3 API in the context of attempting to change the interface mode of a leg with a VLAN interface (i.e. any such request will be ignored).