One of the main reasons why Bonding is configured is because various kinds of application traffic will need to be routed through different VLAN’s on one interface and bonding allows this traffic to pass through a group or team of interfaces at the same time instead of just one allowing for more bandwidth for the VLAN traffic. If this is the case the rule is simple, bond the interfaces first then add the VLAN’s after. This is simply because from a logical standpoint the bonded interface is seen as one interface and the VLAN’s get configured “on top of” or get affiliated with the interface name such as “bnd0” for example rather than eth0 or eth1 which are single interfaces.
If the eth0 interface will need to be included as one of the bonded interfaces, note that in order to maintain remote management access to the LoadMaster WUI, access needs to be temporarily switched to another interface that will not be part of the bond before configuring the bonded interface. This is because by default, the management interface on the LoadMaster is set to eth0. Once the bond has been set up, remote management can be switched back to the bonded interface if desired but if not then it can be left alone. Remote management access using another interface can be set through the Remote Access configuration settings. The Remote Access settings can be located by drilling down to System Configuration > Miscellaneous Options > Remote Access in the LoadMaster WUI. See the screen shots below.
Figure 1 – Navigating to the Remote Access settings in the LoadMaster WUI.
Figure 2 – Setting an alternate Management Interface through the Remote Access settings.
Figure 3 – Location of Bonding and VLAN Configuration settings on a Network Interface in the LoadMaster WUI.
In conclusion, adhering to the recommendations and guidelines mentioned in this document can aid in preventing common setup issues and pitfalls when configuring Bonding and VLAN’s on KEMP LoadMaster virtual or hardware appliances for the first time. Setting these options as recommended usually dictate or determine whether a first time LoadMaster deployment is successful or not. For more detailed information on LoadMaster setup and on the complete feature set, please visit this link: http://www.kemptechnologies.com/loadmaster-documentation
