How to configure Link Aggregation

This article will guide the administrator into setting up Link Aggregation on Thecus NAS, for 64bit models.
Ex: N2800 / N4800 / N5550 / N6850 / N7700PROV2 / N8800PROV2 / N8850 / N8900 / N8900V / N10850 /
N12000 / N12000V / N16000 / N16000V

Link aggregation (a.k.a. trunking, bonding or teaming) combines two or more network connections into one.
To use Link Aggregation, your Ethernet cables must be connected to the same network switch you’re your
network switch must support Link Aggregation.

For more details about Link Aggregation, please refer to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation

Link Aggregation offers two primary benefits:

a. Load Balancing
Your network traffic loads will be distributed across two connections that appear as a single connection in order to increase
reliability through redundancy.

b. Fault tolerance (Failover)

Combining two network connections provides you with fault tolerance. Should one of your network connections fail, traffic
will be automatically directed to the other connection.

Thecus NAS offers several different modes for Link Aggregation. Each mode is described briefly below.
Load Balance (mode=0, balance-rr)
Round-robin policy: Transmits packets in sequential order from the first available connection to the next. This mode provides load
balancing and fault tolerance.

Failover (mode=1, active-backup)

Active Backup policy: Only one connection is active. A different connection becomes active if, and only if, the active connection
fails. The aggregated MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch. This
mode provides fault tolerance. The primary option affects the behavior of this mode.

Balance-XOR (mode=2, balance-xor)

XOR policy: Transmits based on [(source MAC address XOR'd with destination MAC address) modulo slave count]. This mode
provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

Broadcast (mode=3, broadcast)

Broadcast policy: Transmits everything on all connections. This mode provides fault tolerance.
 How to configure Link Aggregation

802.3ad (mode=4, 802.3ad)

802.3ad (IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic Link Aggregation): Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings.
Utilizes all connections in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification. This mode provides fault tolerance and
load balancing.

Prerequisites:
1. Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed and duplex of each slave.
2. You will need a switch that supports IEEE 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation.

Balance-TLB (mode=5, balance-tlb)

Adaptive Transmit Load Balancing: Does not require any special switch support. The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the
current load (computed relative to the speed) on each connection. Incoming traffic is received by the current connection. If the
receiving connection fails, another connection takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving connection. This mode provides
fault tolerance.

Prerequisite:
Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed of each slave.

Balance-ALB (mode=6, 802.3ad)

Adaptive Load Balancing: Includes transmit load balancing plus receive load balancing for IPV4 traffic and does not require any
special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies
sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of
the slaves in the bond such that different peers use different hardware addresses for the server. This mode provides fault
tolerance and load balancing.

The above article were quoted from http://www.linuxhorizon.ro/bonding.html

Note:
1. With Load Balancing a package is send with NIC1, then with NIC2, then with NIC1 etc, so the NIC’s are not used at the same
time. At the end it won’t bring a lot, but in some cases it can cause stability issues.
2. The LAN2 setup will be ignored once Link Aggregation is enabled. Next can connect both NIC’s to the Switch and enter the
management page of the switch to enable Link Aggregation on both ports that are connected to the NAS.
 How to configure Link Aggregation

Link Aggregation modes provide either fault tolerance or load balancing benefits. The benefits provided by
each mode are summarized in the chart below.

Link Aggregation mode Load Balance Fault Tolerance

Load Balance

Failover

Balance-XOR

Broadcast

802.3ad

Balance-TLB

Balance-ALB
 How to configure Link Aggregation

Configuring your NAS

Step1
Select [System Network] → [Linking Aggregation]. Click [+].

Step2
Select the available interface from [Available] to [Selected]. Click [Link]
 How to configure Link Aggregation

Step3
After then a message appear to warning. Click [OK], and then select Link type from the drop down list.
 How to configure Link Aggregation

Step4
Manual enter IP, Netmask, etc. and select [LINK1] be default gateway. Finally, click [Apply] to be effective.
 How to configure Link Aggregation

Step5
Reboot the device. As boot up successfully next time, select [System Network] → [Networking]. You will
now be able to see new interface “LINK1”, status is WAN/LAN1, LAN2; link type is Load Balance.