On Wed, Feb 01, 2017 at 11:55:46AM -0600, Dennis Wicks wrote:
> I find myself with several unused NICs (network interface cards) and some
> empty ports on my switches.
>
> Would it be beneficial to have more than one network connection on a system?
>
> If so, what would I do with it, and how would I set it up? Pointers to
> tutorials and how-to's would be nice!
Case 1: A system becomes a router.
Each NIC attaches to a different IP network. Turn on IP
Forwarding. Now it's a router.
Run iptables, and it's a firewall, too.
Case 2: a system gains redundancy and capacity.
Each NIC attaches to the same switch. The switch has to be
configurable to do Link Aggregation Protocol -- not all can.
You configure the system NICs to become a bond device, using
802.3ad mode. Now traffic can flow through all the bonded
NICs and is resilient if one of the links dies.
Case 3: direct connection to another system.
If you have, for example, a machine which offers a lot of
storage and a machine which uses a lot of storage, you can
connect them directly and gain speed and security, possibly
at the cost of redundancy.
-dsr-
