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Chapter 5. Adding network interfaces

Satellite supports specifying multiple network interfaces for a single host. You can configure these interfaces when creating a new host as described in Section 2.1, “Creating a host in Red Hat Satellite” or when editing an existing host.

There are several types of network interfaces that you can attach to a host. When adding a new interface, select one of:

  • Interface: Allows you to specify an additional physical or virtual interface. There are two types of virtual interfaces you can create. Use VLAN when the host needs to communicate with several (virtual) networks using a single interface, while these networks are not accessible to each other. Use alias to add an additional IP address to an existing interface.

    For more information about adding a physical interface, see Section 5.1, “Adding a physical interface”.

    For more information about adding a virtual interface, see Section 5.2, “Adding a virtual interface”.

  • Bond: Creates a bonded interface. NIC bonding is a way to bind multiple network interfaces together into a single interface that appears as a single device and has a single MAC address. This enables two or more network interfaces to act as one, increasing the bandwidth and providing redundancy. For more information, see Section 5.3, “Adding a bonded interface”.
  • BMC: Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) allows you to remotely monitor and manage the physical state of machines. For more information about BMC, see Enabling Power Management on Hosts in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment. For more information about configuring BMC interfaces, see Section 5.5, “Adding a baseboard management controller (BMC) interface”.
Note

Additional interfaces have the Managed flag enabled by default, which means the new interface is configured automatically during provisioning by the DNS and DHCP Capsule Servers associated with the selected subnet. This requires a subnet with correctly configured DNS and DHCP Capsule Servers. If you use a Kickstart method for host provisioning, configuration files are automatically created for managed interfaces in the post-installation phase at /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-interface_id.

Note

Virtual and bonded interfaces currently require a MAC address of a physical device. Therefore, the configuration of these interfaces works only on bare-metal hosts.

5.1. Adding a physical interface

Use this procedure to add an additional physical interface to a host.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Interfaces tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Keep the Interface option selected in the Type list.
  5. Specify a MAC address. This setting is required.
  6. Specify the Device Identifier, for example eth0. The identifier is used to specify this physical interface when creating bonded interfaces, VLANs, and aliases.
  7. Specify the DNS name associated with the host’s IP address. Satellite saves this name in Capsule Server associated with the selected domain (the "DNS A" field) and Capsule Server associated with the selected subnet (the "DNS PTR" field). A single host can therefore have several DNS entries.
  8. Select a domain from the Domain list. To create and manage domains, navigate to Infrastructure > Domains.
  9. Select a subnet from the Subnet list. To create and manage subnets, navigate to Infrastructure > Subnets.
  10. Specify the IP address. Managed interfaces with an assigned DHCP Capsule Server require this setting for creating a DHCP lease. DHCP-enabled managed interfaces are automatically provided with a suggested IP address.
  11. Select whether the interface is Managed. If the interface is managed, configuration is pulled from the associated Capsule Server during provisioning, and DNS and DHCP entries are created. If using kickstart provisioning, a configuration file is automatically created for the interface.
  12. Select whether this is the Primary interface for the host. The DNS name from the primary interface is used as the host portion of the FQDN.
  13. Select whether this is the Provision interface for the host. TFTP boot takes place using the provisioning interface. For image-based provisioning, the script to complete the provisioning is executed through the provisioning interface.
  14. Select whether to use the interface for Remote execution.
  15. Leave the Virtual NIC checkbox clear.
  16. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  17. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

5.2. Adding a virtual interface

Use this procedure to configure a virtual interface for a host. This can be either a VLAN or an alias interface.

An alias interface is an additional IP address attached to an existing interface. An alias interface automatically inherits a MAC address from the interface it is attached to; therefore, you can create an alias without specifying a MAC address. The interface must be specified in a subnet with boot mode set to static.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Interfaces tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Keep the Interface option selected in the Type list.

  5. Specify the general interface settings. The applicable configuration options are the same as for the physical interfaces described in Section 5.1, “Adding a physical interface”.

    Specify a MAC address for managed virtual interfaces so that the configuration files for provisioning are generated correctly. However, a MAC address is not required for virtual interfaces that are not managed.

    If creating a VLAN, specify ID in the form of eth1.10 in the Device Identifier field. If creating an alias, use ID in the form of eth1:10.

  6. Select the Virtual NIC checkbox. Additional configuration options specific to virtual interfaces are appended to the form:

    • Tag: Optionally set a VLAN tag to trunk a network segment from the physical network through to the virtual interface. If you do not specify a tag, managed interfaces inherit the VLAN tag of the associated subnet. User-specified entries from this field are not applied to alias interfaces.
    • Attached to: Specify the identifier of the physical interface to which the virtual interface belongs, for example eth1. This setting is required.
  7. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  8. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

5.3. Adding a bonded interface

Use this procedure to configure a bonded interface for a host. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.
  2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  3. On the Interfaces tab, click Add Interface.
  4. Select Bond from the Type list. Additional type-specific configuration options are appended to the form.

  5. Specify the general interface settings. The applicable configuration options are the same as for the physical interfaces described in Section 5.1, “Adding a physical interface”.

    Bonded interfaces use IDs in the form of bond0 in the Device Identifier field.

    A single MAC address is sufficient.

    If you are adding a secondary interface, select Managed. Otherwise, Satellite does not apply the configuration.

  6. Specify the configuration options specific to bonded interfaces:

    • Mode: Select the bonding mode that defines a policy for fault tolerance and load balancing. See Section 5.4, “Bonding modes available in Satellite” for a brief description of each bonding mode.
    • Attached devices: Specify a comma-separated list of identifiers of attached devices. These can be physical interfaces or VLANs.
    • Bond options: Specify a space-separated list of configuration options, for example miimon=100. For more information on configuration options for bonded interfaces, see Configuring network bonding in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Configuring and Managing Networking guide.
  7. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  8. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

CLI procedure

  • To create a host with a bonded interface, enter the following command: 

    # hammer host create \
--ask-root-password yes \
--hostgroup My_Host_Group \
--ip=My_IP_Address \
--mac=My_MAC_Address \
--managed true \
--interface="identifier=My_NIC_1, mac=_My_MAC_Address_1, managed=true, type=Nic::Managed, domain_id=My_Domain_ID, subnet_id=My_Subnet_ID" \
--interface="identifier=My_NIC_2, mac=My_MAC_Address_2, managed=true, type=Nic::Managed, domain_id=My_Domain_ID, subnet_id=My_Subnet_ID" \
--interface="identifier=bond0, ip=My_IP_Address_2, type=Nic::Bond, mode=active-backup, attached_devices=[My_NIC_1,My_NIC_2], managed=true, domain_id=My_Domain_ID, subnet_id=My_Subnet_ID" \
--location "My_Location" \
--name "My_Host_Name" \
--organization "My_Organization" \
--subnet-id=My_Subnet_ID

5.4. Bonding modes available in Satellite

Bonding ModeDescription

balance-rr

Transmissions are received and sent sequentially on each bonded interface.

active-backup

Transmissions are received and sent through the first available bonded interface. Another bonded interface is only used if the active bonded interface fails.

balance-xor

Transmissions are based on the selected hash policy. In this mode, traffic destined for specific peers is always sent over the same interface.

broadcast

All transmissions are sent on all bonded interfaces.

802.a3

Creates aggregation groups that share the same settings. Transmits and receives on all interfaces in the active group.

balance-tlb

The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load on each bonded interface.

balance-alb

Receive load balancing is achieved through Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) negotiation.

5.5. Adding a baseboard management controller (BMC) interface

You can control the power status of bare-metal hosts from Satellite. Use this procedure to configure a baseboard management controller (BMC) interface for a host that supports this feature.

Prerequisites

  • You know the MAC address, IP address, and other details of the BMC interface on the host, and authentication credentials for that interface.

    Note

    You only need the MAC address for the BMC interface if the BMC interface is managed, so that it can create a DHCP reservation.

Procedure

  1. Install ipmitool on your Capsule: 

    # satellite-maintain packages install ipmitool

  2. Enable BMC power management on your Capsule: 

    # satellite-installer \
--foreman-proxy-bmc-default-provider=ipmitool \
--foreman-proxy-bmc=true
  3. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Subnets.
  4. Select the subnet of your host.
  5. On the Capsules tab, select your Capsule as BMC Capsule.
  6. Click Submit.
  7. Navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.
  8. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
  9. On the Interfaces tab, click Add Interface.
  10. Select BMC from the Type list. Type-specific configuration options are appended to the form.
  11. Specify the general interface settings. The applicable configuration options are the same as for the physical interfaces described in Section 5.1, “Adding a physical interface”.

  12. Specify the configuration options specific to BMC interfaces:

    • Username and Password: Specify any authentication credentials required by BMC.
    • Provider: Specify the BMC provider.
  13. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  14. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.
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