Most Linux distributions (RHEL, CentOS, Debian etc.) offer the ability to bond multiple networks devices together into Bonding Interfaces, using the bonding kernel module.

Bonding enables two or more network interfaces to act as one which as a result, can provide redundancy and additional bandwidth.

The Linux bonding kernel module keeps track of the status of your bonding interfaces at all times. The status information for each interface is written to files in this directory: /proc/net/bonding/

We use the Zabbix Agent to parse and present status information of bonding interfaces to Zabbix, while also keeping an eye on important health indicators!

Requirements

• O/S: CentOS, RHEL, Debian or Ubuntu (other distributions might work as well)
• Zabbix Agent 1.8 and above
• Zabbix Server 3.0

Zabbix Server 3.0 is required since the template utilizes Application Prototypes.

How it works

The item keys "bond.discovery" and "bond.slave.discovery" traverse your installed bonding interfaces as well as the slave interfaces attached to them. Through Low-level Discovery, several items are then created automatically for all bonding and slave interfaces, which are regularly pulled for data.

Item keys created for each bonding and slave interface:

• Bond: ARP IP Target
• Bond: ARP Polling Interval
• Bond: Bonding Mode
• Bond: Currently Active Slave
• Bond: MII Polling Interval
• Bond: MII Status
• Bond: Primary Slave
• Bond Slave: Link Failure Count
• Bond Slave: MII Status
• Bond Slave: Speed

The following triggers are created for each bonding and slave interface:

• Bond: MII Status
• Bond: Currently Active Slave
• Bond Slave: MII Status
• Bond Slave: Link Failure Count

Instructions - Keeping track of your Bonding Interfaces

1. Add the file "userparameter_bond.conf" to your Zabbix Agent include directory. Example: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/userparameter_bond.conf
   1. Be aware, the config "include" directory varies between distributions.
      RHEL/CentOS: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.d/
      Debian/Ubuntu: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf.d/
2. Restart the Zabbix Agent service.
3. Import the template and add it to your host(s).
4. Wait for bonding and slave interface discovery. Default is every 6 hours.