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7.3. Network Bonding Using the NetworkManager Command Line Tool, nmcli

Note

See Section 3.3, “Configuring IP Networking with nmcli” for an introduction to nmcli.
To create a bond connection with the nmcli tool, issue the following command: 
~]$ nmcli con add type bond ifname mybond0
Connection 'bond-mybond0' (5f739690-47e8-444b-9620-1895316a28ba) successfully added.
Note that as no con-name was given for the bond, the connection name was derived from the interface name by prepending the type.
NetworkManager supports most of the bonding options provided by the kernel. For example: 
~]$ nmcli con add type bond ifname mybond0 bond.options "mode=balance-rr,miimon=100"
Connection 'bond-mybond0' (5f739690-47e8-444b-9620-1895316a28ba) successfully added.
To add a slave interface:
  1. Create a new connection, see Section 3.3.5, “Creating and Modifying a Connection Profile with nmcli” for details.
  2. Set the master property to the bond interface name, or to the name of the master connection: 
~]$ nmcli con add type ethernet ifname ens3 master mybond0
Connection 'bond-slave-ens3' (220f99c6-ee0a-42a1-820e-454cbabc2618) successfully added.
To add a new slave interface, repeat the previous command with the new interface. For example: 
~]$ nmcli con add type ethernet ifname ens7 master mybond0
Connection 'bond-slave-ens7' (ecc24c75-1c89-401f-90c8-9706531e0231) successfully added.
To activate the slaves, issue a command as follows: 
~]$ nmcli con up bond-slave-ens7
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/14)
~]$ nmcli con up bond-slave-ens3
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/15)
When you activate a slave, the master connection also starts. You can see Section 7.1, “Understanding the Default Behavior of Master and Slave Interfaces” for more information. In this case, it is not necessary to manually activate the master connection.
It is possible to change the active_slave option and the primary option of the bond at runtime, without deactivating the connection. For example to change the active_slave option, issue the following command: 
~]$ nmcli dev mod bond0 +bond.options "active_slave=ens7"
Connection successfully reapplied to device 'bond0'.
or to change the primary option: 
~]$ nmcli dev mod bond0 +bond.options "primary=ens3"
Connection successfully reapplied to device 'bond0'.

Note

The active_slave option sets the currently active slave whereas the primary option of the bond specifies the active slave to be automatically selected by kernel when a new slave is added or a failure of the active slave occurs.