Hi all, i'm experiencing some odd behavior on my unraid server while trying to set up link aggregation.  The short version is that when i enable bonding for eth1-4 (4 interfaces on a 4-port addon card) the only bonding mode i can choose is "active-backup".  If i choose anything else and hit apply (such as 802.3AD, which is what i actually want to use), it just flips back to active-backup.  I've got the 4 ports that they are plugged into set up as "aggregate" on my unifi switch, but the mode refuses to change.  Can't seem to figure it out.  Attached are screenshots of my configurations, can anyone take a look?  Thanks!

 

 

...first Pic shows you have bridging enabled (in your case only for eth0)..second Pic shows, you want to switch over from bridging to bonding.

There is no need to switch bridging mode off in order to enable bonding.

Try and (re-)enable bridging as well when activating bonding (and add all eth-x to the bonding interface)

Right, the intent of that way i have it would be for eth0 (which is on the motherboard) to be the primary interface for management and docker functions, and then eth1-4 to be bonded for all other functions (file access, primarily).  Would that be the correct way to accomplish this?

no, the bridge will carry the IP and the bridge will be "linked" to the bonding interface which, in case of 802.3AD, will transfer the packets per stream in a more-or-less round robin like manner across the physical interfaces attached to the bond.

So bonding is for increasing available bandwidth, not traffic separation.

You cannot separate traffic like that....use VLANs for establishing that.

Again, you can have both, VLANs on the bridge(s) and a bonding interface.

 

Edit: for 802.3AD, you need to configure the Switch ports on the other side in the same manner

 

Edited January 20, 20215 yr by Ford Prefect

Understood.  So ideally i would just bond everything and then use VLANs to separate traffic.  

That being said, any idea why the bond is stuck in "active/backup" mode?

 

(also love your nick, it's "nicely inconspicuous")

...see my edit above...802.3AD is a managed bond and you need to configure your Switch accordingly.

 

Of course, you *could* try and do what you described, but addressing your server with different IPs within the same subnet is not really a way of separating the things.

If your Switch and Router support VLANs, I'd go that route.

 

I just ran across this same issue.  I have a NIC with dual 10Gb ports and I want to set up LACP to a Ubiquity Edgeswitch 16XG.  I have the two ports on the switch configured as a LAG.  The Unraid side won't allow me to use 802.3ad.  If I set the interface in Unraid to 802.3ad and hit apply, it goes back to active-passive.  Does anyone know how to fix this?  I've tried with the ports up and down, I rebooted, and tried a few other random things.  It won't let me set any other modes but active-passive.  I have two separate installs of Unraid v6.9.2 doing the same thing.

Maybe this is a unifi specific thing on how to configure it correctly?

When selecting 802.3ad in unraid, try and set the unify switch to passive mode and LACP, not LAG (if there is anything like that in the config/UI of the switch).

LACP/802.3ad works well in my Mikrotik Switches (both CSS/SwOS and CRS/ROS versions) and unRaid 6.8.3 and 6.9.2. 

Does Unraid perform a check when enabling 802.3ad?  I would have expected that even if the link aggregation was not performing, it would still leave the 802.3ad setting turned on rather than switching back to active-passive.

802.3ad is a managed link aggregation, so yes, there must be some kind of negotiation and check going on between the members.

If that fails, there is no use in remaining in faulty state but rather move on to a state where at least one link is working...the user would be left in the dark otherwise.

I never had a problem with that and hence cannot comment on the behaviour in case of a failure. Others did report, that there is some output in the logs.

unRaid side is the active member of that managed link, so I would assume it will report some info.

I played around with the link while reading the logs and I am getting "Warning: No 802.3ad response from the link partner for any adapters in the bond" when trying to set this up.  It appears that my Ubiquiti switch is not doing what it is supposed to do, regardless of whether I configure it through command line or web interface.

I just confirmed that I have the same issue when setting up link aggregation using an HP ProCurve switch instead of Ubiquiti.  I'm not sure where to go from here, as it appears to be an Unraid issue.

13 hours ago, Jonathan Schulz said:

I played around with the link while reading the logs and I am getting "Warning: No 802.3ad response from the link partner for any adapters in the bond" when trying to set this up.  It appears that my Ubiquiti switch is not doing what it is supposed to do, regardless of whether I configure it through command line or web interface.

...what Version of unRAID are you using? We had a report from another User in the German subsection, *with* a Mikrotik Switch, with the same Error(/og-Message.

This User is on v10rc1...I am on 6.9.2.

However, the User reported  that, despite that message, the link/bond appeared to be working after setting the link type to LACP-passive on switch side, and then the switch reported a bond (dual interfaces, *one* MAC).

 

Edited October 4, 20214 yr by Ford Prefect

I have two separate servers running v6.9.2.

 

I just played with the ProCurve and was able to get the LACP ports set to passive.  I set Unraid to 802.3ad and watched it change back to active-passive.  The logs show the "no 802.3ad response" message, but the switch is showing a successful LACP connection.  I finally found Ubiquiti commands to do the same, and it also appears to be functional.  The uncertainty on the Unraid side worries me a bit, as it never really indicates that 802.3ad is correctly configured.  I guess I'll let it run for a bit and see what happens.

OK, thanks for the info.

I never had that on 6.9.2 .... nevertheless it may be worth to report a bug, although being non-critical / low priority

I am having the same issue.  If I watch the ports in unifi I can see them trying to talk to unraid and then failing.  

I have a dozen other machines connected fine without any issues.  Hoping this can be resolved soon.