Bond device shows "HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00" from ifconfig output in RHEL 6

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Issue

  • Bond device shows "HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00" from ifconfig output in RHEL 6

Resolution

  • After adding bonding options to ifcfg-bondN file, problem resolved.

BONDING_OPTS="mode=active-backup miimon=100 updelay=200 downdelay=200"

Root Cause

  • The bondings options are not defined in ifcfg-ethN files

Diagnostic Steps

  • Network configuration files:

# cat ifcfg-eth6
DEVICE="eth6"
BOOTPROTO="none"
USERCTL="no"
HWADDR="1C:C1:DE:73:86:D0"
MASTER="bond1"
SLAVE="yes"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
ONBOOT="yes"

# cat ifcfg-eth9
DEVICE="eth9"
BOOTPROTO="none"
USERCTL="no"
HWADDR="1C:C1:DE:7A:C0:4A"
MASTER="bond1"
SLAVE="yes"
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
ONBOOT="yes"

# cat ifcfg-bond1
DEVICE="bond1"
USERCTL="no"
IPADDR=145.70.18.104
NETMASK=145.70.18.254
NETWORK=145.70.18.0
BOOTPROTO="none"
ONBOOT="yes"

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf
alias bond0
bonding
options bond0 mode=active-backup miimon=100 updelay=200
downdelay=200
alias bond1 bonding
options bond1 mode=active-backup
miimon=100 updelay=200 downdelay=200
alias bond2 bonding
options
bond2 mode=active-backup miimon=100 updelay=200 downdelay=200

bond1
    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
              inet
addr:145.70.18.104  Bcast:145.70.18.105  Mask:255.255.255.254
            
   UP BROADCAST RUNNING MASTER MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
             

RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX
packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0
(0.0 b)

  • In the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or later, it is required to  define bonding options in ifcfg-bondN files. (N is 0,1,2...)

  • For example:

BONDING_OPTS="mode=active-backup miimon=100 updelay=200
downdelay=200"

  • Specify above entry in ifcfg-bondN files and remove this  from bonding.conf file.
  • All the options are specified in double  quotes (for example DEVICE="eth6"), remove double quotes from all  configuration files.
  • After that, restart the network service.

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