8.10. Configure a Network Team Using the Command Line

To view the connections available on the system:

~]$ nmcli connection show
NAME  UUID                                  TYPE            DEVICE
enp2s0  0e8185a1-f0fd-4802-99fb-bedbb31c689b  802-3-ethernet  --
enp1s0  dfe1f57b-419d-4d1c-aaf5-245deab82487  802-3-ethernet  --

To view the devices available on the system:

~]$ nmcli device status
DEVICE      TYPE      STATE                                  CONNECTION
virbr0      bridge    connected                              virbr0
ens3        ethernet  connected                              ens3

To create a new team interface, with name ServerA:

~]$ nmcli connection add type team ifname ServerA
Connection 'team-ServerA' (b954c62f-5fdd-4339-97b0-40efac734c50) successfully added.

NetworkManager will set its internal parameter connection.autoconnect to yes and as no IP address was given ipv4.method will be set to auto. NetworkManager will also write a configuration file to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-team-ServerA where the corresponding ONBOOT will be set to yes and BOOTPROTO will be set to dhcp.

Note that manual changes to the ifcfg file will not be noticed by NetworkManager until the interface is next brought up. See Section 2.7, “Using NetworkManager with sysconfig files” for more information on using configuration files.

To view the other values assigned:

~]$ nmcli con show team-ServerA
connection.id:                          team-ServerA
connection.uuid:                        b954c62f-5fdd-4339-97b0-40efac734c50
connection.interface-name:              ServerA
connection.type:                        team
connection.autoconnect:                 yes
…
ipv4.method:                            auto
[output truncated]

As no JSON configuration file was specified the default values apply. See the teamd.conf(5) man page for more information on the team JSON parameters and their default values. Notice that the name was derived from the interface name by prepending the type. Alternatively, specify a name with the con-name option as follows:

~]$ nmcli connection add type team con-name Team0 ifname ServerB
Connection 'Team0' (5f7160a1-09f6-4204-8ff0-6d96a91218a7) successfully added.

To view the team interfaces just configured, enter a command as follows:

~]$ nmcli con show
NAME                UUID                                  TYPE            DEVICE
team-ServerA        b954c62f-5fdd-4339-97b0-40efac734c50  team            ServerA
enp2s0                0e8185a1-f0fd-4802-99fb-bedbb31c689b  802-3-ethernet  --
enp1s0                dfe1f57b-419d-4d1c-aaf5-245deab82487  802-3-ethernet  --
Team0               5f7160a1-09f6-4204-8ff0-6d96a91218a7  team            ServerB

To change the name assigned to a team, enter a command in the following format:

nmcli con mod old-team-name connection.id new-team-name

To load a team configuration file for a team that already exists:

nmcli connection modify team-name team.config JSON-config

You can specify the team configuration either as a JSON string or provide a file name containing the configuration. The file name can include the path. In both cases, what is stored in the team.config property is the JSON string. In the case of a JSON string, use single quotes around the string and paste the entire string to the command line.

To review the team.config property:

nmcli con show team-name | grep team.config

When the team.config property is set, all the other team properties are updated accordingly.

It is also possible a more flexible way of exposing and setting particular team options without modifying directly the corresponding JSON string. You can do this by using the other available team properties to set the related team options one by one to the required values. As a result, the team.config property is updated to match the new values.

For example, to set the team.link-watchers property which allows to specify one or multiple link-watchers, enter a command in the following format:

nmcli connection modify team-name team.link-watchers "name=ethtool delay-up=5, name=nsna_ping target-host=target.host"

The required link-watchers are separated by comma and the attributes which belong to the same link-watcher are separated by space.

To set the team.runner and the team.link-watchers properties, enter a command in the following format:

nmcli connection modify team-name team.runner activebackup team.link-watchers "name=ethtool delay-up=5, name=nsna_ping target-host=target.host"

This is equivalent to set the team.config property to the corresponding JSON string:

nmcli connection modify team-name team.config '{"runner": {"name": "activebackup"}, "link_watch": [{"name": "ethtool", "delay_up": 5},{"name": "nsna_ping", "target_host ": "target.host"}]'

To add an interface enp1s0 to Team0, with the name Team0-port1, issue a command as follows:

~]$ nmcli con add type ethernet con-name Team0-port1 ifname enp1s0 slave-type team master Team0
Connection 'Team0-port1' (ccd87704-c866-459e-8fe7-01b06cf1cffc) successfully added.

Similarly, to add another interface, enp2s0, with the name Team0-port2, issue a command as follows:

~]$ nmcli con add type ethernet con-name Team0-port2 ifname enp2s0 slave-type team master Team0
Connection 'Team0-port2' (a89ccff8-8202-411e-8ca6-2953b7db52dd) successfully added.

nmcli only supports Ethernet ports.

To open a team, the ports must be brought up first as follows:

~]$ nmcli connection up Team0-port1
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/2)

~]$ nmcli connection up Team0-port2
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/3)

You can verify that the team interface was brought up by the activation of the ports, as follows:

~]$ ip link
3:  Team0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DEFAULT
    link/ether 52:54:00:76:6f:f0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:f

Alternatively, issue a command to open the team as follows:

~]$ nmcli connection up Team0
Connection successfully activated (D-Bus active path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/4)

See Section 3.3, “Configuring IP Networking with nmcli” for an introduction to nmcli

To create a network team, a JSON format configuration file is required for the virtual interface that will serve as the interface to the team of ports or links. A quick way is to copy the example configuration files and then edit them using an editor running with root privileges. To list the available example configurations, enter the following command:

~]$ ls /usr/share/doc/teamd-*/example_configs/
activebackup_arp_ping_1.conf  activebackup_multi_lw_1.conf   loadbalance_2.conf
activebackup_arp_ping_2.conf  activebackup_nsna_ping_1.conf  loadbalance_3.conf
activebackup_ethtool_1.conf   broadcast.conf                 random.conf
activebackup_ethtool_2.conf   lacp_1.conf                    roundrobin_2.conf
activebackup_ethtool_3.conf   loadbalance_1.conf             roundrobin.conf

To view one of the included files, such as activebackup_ethtool_1.conf, enter the following command:

~]$ cat /usr/share/doc/teamd-*/example_configs/activebackup_ethtool_1.conf
{
	"device":	"team0",
	"runner":	{"name": "activebackup"},
	"link_watch":	{"name": "ethtool"},
	"ports":	{
		"enp1s0": {
			"prio": -10,
			"sticky": true
		},
		"enp2s0": {
			"prio": 100
		}
	}
}

Create a working configurations directory to store teamd configuration files. For example, as normal user, enter a command with the following format:

~]$ mkdir ~/teamd_working_configs

Copy the file you have chosen to your working directory and edit it as necessary. As an example, you could use a command with the following format:

~]$ cp /usr/share/doc/teamd-*/example_configs/activebackup_ethtool_1.conf \ ~/teamd_working_configs/activebackup_ethtool_1.conf

To edit the file to suit your environment, for example to change the interfaces to be used as ports for the network team, open the file for editing as follows:

~]$ vi ~/teamd_working_configs/activebackup_ethtool_1.conf

Make any necessary changes and save the file. See the vi(1) man page for help on using the vi editor or use your preferred editor.

Note that it is essential that the interfaces to be used as ports within the team must not be active, that is to say, they must be “down”, when adding them into a team device. To check their status, issue the following command:

~]$ ip link show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: em1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:d5:f7:d4 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: em2: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT qlen 1000
  link/ether 52:54:00:d8:04:70 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

In this example we see that both the interfaces we plan to use are “UP”.

To take down an interface, issue a command as root in the following format:

~]# ip link set down em1

Repeat for each interface as necessary.

To create a team interface based on the configuration file, as root user, change to the working configurations directory (teamd_working_configs in this example):

~]# cd /home/userteamd_working_configs

Then issue a command in the following format:

~]# teamd -g -f activebackup_ethtool_1.conf -d
Using team device "team0".
Using PID file "/var/run/teamd/team0.pid"
Using config file "/home/user/teamd_working_configs/activebackup_ethtool_1.conf"

The -g option is for debug messages, -f option is to specify the configuration file to load, and the -d option is to make the process run as a daemon after startup. See the teamd(8) man page for other options.

To check the status of the team, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamdctl team0 state
setup:
  runner: activebackup
ports:
  em1
    link watches:
      link summary: up
      instance[link_watch_0]:
        name: ethtool
        link: up
  em2
    link watches:
      link summary: up
      instance[link_watch_0]:
        name: ethtool
        link: up
runner:
  active port: em1

To apply an address to the network team interface, team0, issue a command as root in the following format:

~]# ip addr add 192.168.23.2/24 dev team0

To check the IP address of a team interface, issue a command as follows:

~]$ ip addr show team0
4: team0:  <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP
    link/ether 16:38:57:60:20:6f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.23.2/24 scope global team0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 2620:52:0:221d:1438:57ff:fe60:206f/64 scope global dynamic
       valid_lft 2591880sec preferred_lft 604680sec
    inet6 fe80::1438:57ff:fe60:206f/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

To activate the team interface, or to bring it “up”, issue a command as root in the following format:

~]# ip link set dev team0 up

To temporarily deactivate the team interface, or to take it “down”, issue a command as root in the following format:

~]# ip link set dev team0 down

To terminate, or kill, an instance of the team daemon, as root user, issue a command in the following format:

~]# teamd -t team0 -k

The -k option is to specify that the instance of the daemon associated with the device team0 is to be killed. See the teamd(8) man page for other options.

For help on command-line options for teamd, issue the following command:

~]$ teamd -h

In addition, see the teamd(8) man page.

To create a networking team using ifcfg files, create a file in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory as follows:

DEVICE=team0
DEVICETYPE=Team
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
IPADDR=192.168.11.1
PREFIX=24
TEAM_CONFIG='{"runner": {"name": "activebackup"}, "link_watch": {"name": "ethtool"}}'

This creates the interface to the team, in other words, this is the master.

To create a port to be a member of team0, create one or more files in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory as follows:

DEVICE=enp1s0
HWADDR=D4:85:64:01:46:9E
DEVICETYPE=TeamPort
ONBOOT=yes
TEAM_MASTER=team0
TEAM_PORT_CONFIG='{"prio": 100}'

Add additional port interfaces similar to the above as required, changing the DEVICE and HWADDR field to match the ports (the network devices) being added. If port priority is not specified by prio it defaults to 0; it accepts negative and positive values in the range -32,767 to +32,767.

Specifying the hardware or MAC address using the HWADDR directive will influence the device naming procedure. This is explained in Chapter 11, Consistent Network Device Naming.

To open the network team, issue the following command as root:

~]# ifup team0

To view the network team, issue the following command:

~]$ ip link show

To add a port em1 to a network team team0, using the ip utility, issue the following commands as root:

~]# ip link set dev em1 down
~]# ip link set dev em1 master team0

Add additional ports as required. Team driver will bring ports up automatically.

To view or list the ports in a network team, using the teamnl utility, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamnl team0 ports
em2: up 100 fullduplex
em1: up 100 fullduplex

To view or list all currently available options, using the teamnl utility, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamnl team0 options

To configure a team to use active backup mode, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamnl team0 setoption mode activebackup

To add an address to a team team0, using the ip utility, issue the following command as root:

~]# ip addr add 192.168.252.2/24 dev team0

To activate or “open” an interface to a network team, team0, using the ip utility, issue the following command as root:

~]# ip link set team0 up

To view or list the activeport option in a network team, using the teamnl utility, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamnl team0 getoption activeport
0

To set the activeport option in a network team, using the teamnl utility, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamnl team0 setoption activeport 5

To check the change in team port options, issue the following command as root:

~]# teamnl team0 getoption activeport
5