[SOLVED] Combining NICs

[generalproxuser]

Fairly new to this part of proxmox.

I have a server that I received recently that I want to install proxmox onto and move my existing proxmox "home server" onto this new server.

My home server only has two NICs and I dedicated 1 NIC to my ISP connection and the second NIC to my LAN connections since I am hosting my router on proxmox.

The new server has 6 NICS and I was wondering if it is possible to combine two NICs as my ISP connection and 4 NICs as my LAN connections.

I have a cisco 48port switch to connect all these ports up and I am familiar with creating etherchannels but I am unfamiliar on combining NICs with proxmox or if what I want to achieve is possible.

Thanks.

 

[Dunuin]

Fairly new to this part of proxmox.

I have a server that I received recently that I want to install proxmox onto and move my existing proxmox "home server" onto this new server.

My home server only has two NICs and I dedicated 1 NIC to my ISP connection and the second NIC to my LAN connections since I am hosting my router on proxmox.

The new server has 6 NICS and I was wondering if it is possible to combine two NICs as my ISP connection and 4 NICs as my LAN connections.

I have a cisco 48port switch to connect all these ports up and I am familiar with creating etherchannels but I am unfamiliar on combining NICs with proxmox or if what I want to achieve is possible.

Thanks.

If your switch supports LACP I would create a Linux bond and use LACP layer 3+4 (or atleast layer 2+3) with it.
That all can be done using the webUI.

 

[generalproxuser]

@Dunuin

Once again you got me on the right path. I now have two bonds working with LACP on my switch.

Next (and hopefully last) question that should finish my prep to move vms/cts from my old server:

A while back you got me sorted out on how to direct a NIC to a container so that the NIC was exclusive to the container and nothing else.

Is that possible with a bond to a vm? Essentially, direct the bond (which is LACP with two physical NICs) to a single vm only and nothing else has access to it?

 

[Dunuin]

I don't think that will work. If you want a physical passthrough you need to use PCI passthrough the device itself and a bond is a software thing. If you want to passthrough NICs and bonding you need to passthrough the individual NICs and then create a bond from inside the VM.

 

[generalproxuser]

Thanks @Dunuin

Now I need to decide which route to take. I might try both and I think a vm bridge with the bond on proxmox side might be the path of least resistance. Like my container adventure a while ago, I just want to ensure that all traffic going through a particular interface only talks to a single vm.

 

[Dunuin]

From a performance point of view virtio NICs shouldn't be a noticable bottleneck as long as you only use 1Gbit or 2.5Gbit NICs.

 

[generalproxuser]

So after some testing I have settled on a vm bridge with the bonded ports on proxmox side. The vmbridge/bond setup still appears as 1 logical NIC to whatever vm/ct I attach them to but traffic is definitely passed through all bonded ports according to my switch lacp output. Thanks again @Dunuin