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Hybrid Bonded Mode

Equinix Metal™ allows users to change the networking mode of servers from the default Layer 3 Bonded mode to a Hybrid Bonded Layer 3 and Layer 2 mode.

Hybrid Bonded mode enables a highly available “bonded” setup of 2 networking interfaces that supports both Layer 2 and Layer 3 modes at the same time. This keeps the functionality of supporting both Layer 2 and Layer 3, but does so while maintaining a highly available bonded networking interface that spans 2 diverse upstream switches.

Hybrid Bonded Diagram

This is a way to implement common hybrid cloud networking models such as running firewalls, custom gateways, ingress controllers and other types of proxies that face the Internet on one side and private Layer 2 infrastructure on the other side.

General Overview​

  • In Hybrid Bonded Mode all Layer 3 and Layer 2 traffic is handled on bond0.
  • Your server's Internet access is preserved through your Equinix Metal assigned public IP address.
  • Layer 3 traffic is untagged.
  • All Layer 2 traffic has to be tagged and handled by subinterfaces on bond0, one for every VLAN.
  • Hybrid Bonded mode does not support untagged Layer 2 traffic or setting a Native VLAN.

Enabling Hybrid Bonded Mode​

Enabling Hybrid Bonded mode can be done by assigning a VLAN to the bonded interface on your server.

In the Equinix Metal console, navigate to the server's Network tab, click Convert To Other Network Type, select Hybrid, and choose Bonded.

Then, select the VLAN from the drop-down, which will allow you to assign a VLAN to the bond0 interface. Click Convert to Hybrid to start the changes.

Converting to Hybrid Bonded mode options panel

Configuring Your Servers​

Once you have assigned the VLAN to bond0, you will need to configure the networking on the server's operating system. Because traffic from both Layer 3 and the VLAN are going through bond0, you will need to create a subinterface to handle the tagged traffic over the VLAN. Hybrid Bonded mode does not support untagged VLAN traffic or setting a Native VLAN.

The following examples use a VLAN with VLAN ID 1036 and subnet 198.51.100.0/24.

Note: Using the subnet starting with 10.x.x.x for your VLAN traffic is not recommended as we use this for the server's private networking and collisions could occur if you use the same subnet.

iproute2 is a utility for managing networking configurations in the Linux kernel. It is included in most Linux operating system distributions.

  1. Install and configure the prerequisites for VLANs and tagged interfaces.

    apt-get install vlan
    modprobe 8021q
    echo "8021q" >> /etc/modules

  2. Add a new subinterface on bond0 to handle tagged traffic. The example uses VLAN ID 1036.

    ip link add link bond0 name bond0.1036 type vlan id 1036

  3. Assign an IP address from your VLANs subnet to the subinterface. The examples uses IP address 198.51.100.2.

    ip addr add 198.51.100.2/24 dev bond0.1036

  4. Bring up the interface, and check that it came up.

    ip link set dev bond0.1036 up
    ip -d link show bond0.1036

  • Optional: To make the networking configuration permanent and survive server reboots, add the new subinterface to the /etc/network/interfaces file.

    auto bond0.1036
    iface bond0.1036 inet static
    pre-up sleep 5
    address 198.51.100.2/24
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    vlan-raw-device bond0

    Note: The line pre-up sleep 5 helps to prevent conflicts on bond0 when the server boots.

You need to run through the same steps on all the servers that you want to attach to the VLAN, assigning a different IP address from the subnet to each.

Adding Multiple VLANs​

Adding multiple VLANs to the bond is supported, you just have to make sure there is a subinterface that will receive packets destined for each VLAN.

To assign another VLAN, or to assign multiple VLANs at once, navigate to the server's Network page. In the Layer 2 section, click Add New VLAN, to assign the VLAN to the bond0 port.

Adding multiple VLANs slide-out panel

Click Add to start the changes. Note that if you assign multiple VLANs at once, they are added through an asynchronous batch process, which begins immediately, but may take some time to complete.

Once the VLANs are assigned to bond0, repeat the process for configuring your servers to create the additional tagged subinterfaces for each VLAN.

Testing the VLAN Connection​

You should now be able to communicate between the servers on your VLAN Layer 2 network.

root@dev-02:~# ping 198.51.100.2
>
PING 198.51.100.2 (198.51.100.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 198.51.100.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.898 ms
64 bytes from 198.51.100.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.659 ms
64 bytes from 198.51.100.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.649 ms
64 bytes from 198.51.100.2: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.421 ms
^C
--- 198.51.100.2 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3037ms

Converting Back to Layer 3​

To go back to the default Layer 3 networking configuration, remove any and all VLANs from bond0.

To unassign a VLAN from a port, navigate to the server's Network tab. In the Layer 2 section, select the VLAN or VLANs you are detaching from the server and click Remove.

Removing a VLAN

Note that detaching the VLAN from this server does NOT delete it from your project. The VLAN will continue to exist after detaching it from the server.

Once all the VLANs are removed from the port, bond0 will be back on Layer 3 mode. From there you can use any other of the existing network modes.