Configure Network Teaming Properties

Network interface teaming is a feature-rich alternative to network interface bonding. Teaming, like bonding, is another way to implement network link aggregation, where one or more interfaces are bundled together to act as one logical link. Network teaming functionality is provided by the small kernel driver while network bonding functionality is provided by the bonding driver. For a comparison of the features, see Teaming and Bonding Feature Comparison.

Cockpit administrators can easily create, change, or delete a network teaming interface by using the teaming configuration properties provided on the Networking page.

Important:

Starting in Oracle Linux 9, network teaming has been deprecated as a feature in favor of network bonding. If you're using Oracle Linux 9 or later, see Configure Network Bonding Properties for further details.

What Do You Need?

Steps

Using the Cockpit web console, follow these steps to create, change, or remove a network teaming interface configuration on the host system.

  1. In the Networking page, navigate to the Interface panel and perform any of the following:
    • Create a bonded interface.
      1. Click Add Team. The Team Settings dialog appears.
      2. In the Team Settings dialog, specify the following properties and then click Save.
        Property Description
        Name Use the default name (for example, team0) or type in a user-specified team name such as team0 (round robin).
        Interface Ports Select the interfaces that you want bundle together from the available port list.
        Runner Runner modes determine the load balancing and fail-over schemes applied to the teamed port interfaces.

        In the drop-down list menu, select one of the following runner modes for the selected teamed port interfaces.

        • Broadcast. All network traffic is sent across all port interfaces.

        • Round Robin. Network traffic is balanced by transmitting in sequential order beginning with the first available port interface. If an interface fails, it's skipped in the round-robin selection.

        • Active Backup. A single port interface or link is used while other port interfaces act as backups.

        • LACP. Uses the IEEE 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation policy and requires an 802.3ad capable switch. Traffic is broadcast in aggregation groups to maximize fault tolerance and to provide load balancing functionality.

        Link watch

        Link watch monitors the state of the teamed port interfaces. In the drop-down list box, select the applicable link watch option. For example:

        • Ethtool (Default). Link watch uses the Oracle Linux ethtool utility for managing the teamed port interfaces.

        • ARP. Link watch uses the Oracle Linux arp_ping utility and the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) at the data layer to send ARP requests to destination hosts.

        Link Up and Link Down Set the link up or link down timer delays in milliseconds. Delays enable the teamed port interfaces to synchronize.

        For Link up delay, you might want to specify a time between when a device link is reestablished and when the device can be used to service network traffic.

        For Link down delay, some devices and switches might take some time before their backup mode becomes activated. Specifying a delay prevents a fail-over to immediately occur before those backup devices are ready to be used.

        The name of the newly teamed port interface appears in Interface section of the Networking page.

    • Edit, disable, or remove existing team interface properties.
      1. In the Interface table, click the name of a team interface that you want edit.

        The Networking [team name] page appears.

      2. In the Networking [team name] page, edit the configurable teaming properties as needed. For example:
        Action Steps
        Toggle the connection state of the team interface. Turn off the toggle switch to deactivate the team interface state or turn on the toggle switch to activate the team interface state.
        Delete the team interface configuration Click Delete (next to the team interface name) to remove the bonded interface configuration.
        Toggle the connection state of an interface port In the Ports table, turn off the toggle switch to deactivate a port or turn on the toggle switch to activate the port.
        Automatically connect team interface (after reboot) Select the checkbox to enable or clear the check box to disable.
        Edit the Team: name properties Click the link to edit any of the applicable properties appearing on the Bond Settings dialog. For example, runner option, interface assignment, and so on.
        Edit port-specific properties In the Port table, click the name of one of ports that's part of the team interface, and then as needed, edit any of properties appearing on the Team Settings dialog