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Can I use more than one nic?

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  Can I use more than one nic? Dennis Wicks <wix@mgssub.com> - 2017-02-01 19:00 +0100
    Re: Can I use more than one nic? Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2017-02-01 19:10 +0100
      Re: Can I use more than one nic? Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de> - 2017-02-01 21:10 +0100
    Re: Can I use more than one nic? Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-02-01 19:20 +0100

#177238 — Can I use more than one nic?

I find myself with several unused NICs (network interface 
cards) and some empty ports on my switches.

Would it be beneficial to have more than one network 
connection on a system?

If so, what would I do with it, and how would I set it up? 
Pointers to tutorials and how-to's would be nice!

Many TIA!
Dennis

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#177239

On Wed, Feb 01, 2017 at 11:55:46AM -0600, Dennis Wicks wrote:
> I find myself with several unused NICs (network interface cards) and some
> empty ports on my switches.
> 
> Would it be beneficial to have more than one network connection on a system?
> 
> If so, what would I do with it, and how would I set it up? Pointers to
> tutorials and how-to's would be nice!

Case 1: A system becomes a router.
    Each NIC attaches to a different IP network. Turn on IP
    Forwarding. Now it's a router.
    Run iptables, and it's a firewall, too.

Case 2: a system gains redundancy and capacity.
    Each NIC attaches to the same switch. The switch has to be
    configurable to do Link Aggregation Protocol -- not all can.
    You configure the system NICs to become a bond device, using
    802.3ad mode. Now traffic can flow through all the bonded 
    NICs and is resilient if one of the links dies.

Case 3: direct connection to another system.
    If you have, for example, a machine which offers a lot of
    storage and a machine which uses a lot of storage, you can
    connect them directly and gain speed and security, possibly
    at the cost of redundancy.

-dsr-

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#177243

Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> Case 2: a system gains redundancy and capacity.
>     Each NIC attaches to the same switch. The switch has to be
>     configurable to do Link Aggregation Protocol -- not all can.
>     You configure the system NICs to become a bond device, using
>     802.3ad mode. Now traffic can flow through all the bonded 
>     NICs and is resilient if one of the links dies.

Case 2a: a system gains redundancy and capacity.
     Each NIC attaches to one or multiple switches Those switches
     do not need any special support for LACP, but need to be 
     connected in some way.
     You configure the system NICs to become a bond device, using
     ALB mode. Now traffic can flow through all the bonded
     NICs and is resilient if one of the links dies.
     
     (But ALB does not protect you from falsely plugged cables
     like LACP/802.3ad does.)

Grüße,
Sven.

-- 
Sigmentation fault. Core dumped.

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#177240

Dennis Wicks wrote:
> I find myself with several unused NICs (network interface 
> cards) and some empty ports on my switches.
>
> Would it be beneficial to have more than one network 
> connection on a system?

As with many things, "it depends".  What's the box in question do?


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|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
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