Ethernet bonding in Debian Etch

UPDATE: This works only with Debian Etch, cause in Lenny update-modules is deprecated!

If you want to enable bonding in Debian, for example to have high-availability of your network interfaces, these are the quick steps you have to do:

# apt-get install ifenslave-2.6


edit /etc/network/interfaces to look like this:

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
address 192.168.1.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.1
# dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1
up /sbin/ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1


then, add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/aliases:

alias bond0 bonding


and issue
# update-modules

Stop the old eth0 interface with

# ifconfig eth0 down

(do not use ifdown cause it reads /etc/network/interfaces that no long knows anything about eth0)

and finally start the new bonded interface with

# ifup bond0
OR
# /etc/init.d/networking restart