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Chapter 5. Configuring 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 configuring an 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 by 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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.

5.1. Configuring a physical interface
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You can configure a physical interface for a host.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the Add Interface form:

    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.

  2. Specify the general interface settings:

    1. Specify a MAC address. This setting is required.
    2. Specify the Device Identifier, for example eth0.

  3. Configure network and DNS settings:

    1. Specify the DNS name associated with the host’s IP address.
    2. Select a domain from the Domain list.
    3. Select a subnet in the IPv4 Subnet or IPv6 Subnet list.

    4. Specify the IPv4 address or IPv6 address.

      Note

      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.

  4. Specify interface management options:

    1. Select whether the interface is Managed.
    2. Select whether this is the Primary interface for the host.
    3. Select whether this is the Provision interface for the host.
    4. Select whether to use the interface for Remote execution.
  5. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  6. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

5.2. Configuring a virtual interface
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You can configure a virtual interface for a host. This can be either a VLAN or an alias interface.

  • A VLAN interface allows the host to connect to separate network segments using a single physical 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.
Note

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

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the Add Interface form:

    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.

  2. Specify the general interface settings:

    1. If the virtual interface is managed, specify a MAC address.

    2. Specify ID in the Device Identifier field.

      • For a VLAN, use the eth1.10 format.
      • For an alias, use the eth1:10 format.

  3. Configure a virtual NIC:

    1. Select the Virtual NIC checkbox.
    2. Optionally, specify a VLAN Tag.
    3. Specify the identifier of the physical interface to which the virtual interface is Attached to, for example eth1. This setting is required.
  4. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  5. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

5.3. Configuring a bonded interface
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You can combine multiple physical interfaces together by configuring a bonded interface for the host.

Note

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

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the Add Interface form:

    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.
  2. Select Bond from the Type list.

  3. Specify the general interface settings:

    1. In the Device Identifier field, specify the interface ID in the bond0 format .
    2. Specify a MAC address.
    3. If you are configuring a secondary interface, select Managed. Otherwise, Satellite does not apply the configuration.

  4. Add the configuration specific to bonded interfaces:

    1. Mode: Select the bonding mode.
    2. Attached devices: Specify a comma-separated list of identifiers of attached devices. These can be physical interfaces or VLANs.
    3. Bond options: Specify a space-separated list of configuration options, for example miimon=100.
  5. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  6. 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=bondN, 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
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Replace bondN with bond and the ID of your device identifier, for example, bond0.

5.4. Configuring a bridge interface
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You can configure traffic forwarding between networks by configuring a bridge interface.

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 Bridge from the Type list.
  5. Specify a MAC address.
  6. In the Device Identifier field, specify the interface ID in the bridge0 format.
  7. If you are configuring a secondary interface, select Managed.
  8. In the Attached devices field, specify a comma-separated list of identifiers of attached devices. These can be physical or virtual Ethernet devices, bonds, or VLAN devices.
  9. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  10. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

5.5. Bonding modes available in Satellite
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Expand
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.

To control the power status of bare-metal hosts from Satellite, you can configure a baseboard management controller (BMC) interface for hosts that support 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. Enable BMC power management on your Capsule: 

    # satellite-installer \
--foreman-proxy-bmc-default-provider ipmitool \
--foreman-proxy-bmc true
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
  2. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Subnets.
  3. Select the subnet of your host.
  4. On the Capsules tab, select your Capsule as BMC Capsule.
  5. Click Submit.

  6. Navigate to the Add Interface form:

    1. Navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.
    2. Click Edit next to the host you want to edit.
    3. On the Interfaces tab, click Add Interface.
  7. Select BMC from the Type list.

  8. Specify the general interface settings:

    1. If the BMC is managed, specify a MAC address.
    2. Specify the Device Identifier.

  9. Specify the configuration options specific to BMC interfaces:

    1. Username and Password: Specify any authentication credentials required by BMC.
    2. Provider: Specify the BMC provider.
  10. Click OK to save the interface configuration.
  11. Click Submit to apply the changes to the host.

5.7. Network interface configuration options
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When adding a network interface, you need to specify several configuration options. The following lists provide information on the relevant options for the different types of interfaces.

Physical interface settings

Device Identifier
The identifier is used to specify this physical interface when creating bonded interfaces, VLANs, and aliases.
DNS name
Satellite saves this name in the 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.
Domain
Specifies the domain associated with the network interface. To create and manage domains, navigate to Infrastructure > Domains.
Subnet
Specifies the subnet associated with the network interface. To create and manage subnets, navigate to Infrastructure > Subnets.
Managed interface
If the interface is managed, configuration is pulled from the associated Capsule Server during provisioning, and DNS and DHCP entries are created. If you use provisioning with installer automation, a configuration file is automatically created for the interface.
Primary interface
The DNS name from the primary interface is used as the host portion of the FQDN.
Provision
Network boot uses the provisioning interface. For image-based provisioning, the script to complete the provisioning is executed through the provisioning interface.

Virtual interface settings

Tag

You can 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.

Bonded interface settings

Mode
The bonding mode defines a policy for fault tolerance and load balancing. See Section 5.5, “Bonding modes available in Satellite” for a brief description of each bonding mode.

For more information on configuration options for bonded interfaces, see Configuring network bonding in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Configuring and Managing Networking.

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