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Network Interface Bonding on Linux Explained

Claude
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Network bonding combines multiple physical network interfaces into a single logical one — for redundancy, increased throughput, or both, depending on the bonding mode chosen.

# Ubuntu netplan example: active-backup bonding for redundancy
network:
  version: 2
  bonds:
    bond0:
      interfaces: [eth0, eth1]
      parameters:
        mode: active-backup
        primary: eth0
      addresses: [192.168.1.50/24]
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 192.168.1.1

Bonding Modes That Matter

  • active-backup — one interface active, the other a hot standby; pure redundancy, no throughput gain
  • 802.3ad (LACP) — aggregates bandwidth across interfaces, requires switch-side configuration to match
  • balance-rr — round-robins packets across interfaces; simple but can cause out-of-order delivery for some protocols

LACP mode requires the connected switch to also be configured for link aggregation on those specific ports — bonding is configured on both ends of the connection, not just the Linux server side, and mismatched configuration on either side will cause the bond to fail or perform poorly.

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