Creating network bonds

Network bonding is needed to give IBM Storage Scale Systems nodes reliable and high-performance networking. Bonding combines multiple network interface cards (NICs) so that the cluster does not stop if a cable or port fails. You must create high-speed network bonds on I/O nodes and management server nodes before the cluster creation.

Note: When you create network bonds, use only the original hostname, hostname-hs, in the essrun commands.

Complete the following steps to create network bonds:

Create network bonds I/O and management nodes.
- Create network bonds on I/O nodes.
```
essrun -N <IOnode1>,<IOnode2>,<IOnoden>... network --suffix=-hs
```
- Create network bonds on management nodes.
```
essrun -N <MS1> network --suffix=-hs
```
- Create bonds on I/O and management server nodes at the same time.
```
essrun -N <IOnode1>,<IOnode2>,<MS1> network --suffix=-hs
```
Ensure that the network adapters are configured for the correct protocol, that is, InfiniBand or Ethernet. For more information about adapters protocols, see Configuring ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6, or ConnectX-7 adapter.
Optional: Run the network test.

Use the nsdperf tool to verify whether the newly created network bonds are healthy.
1. Connect the container to an I/O node or a management server node.
```
ssh <IOnode1>
ESSENV=TEST essnettest -N <IOnode1>,<IOnode2> --suffix=-hs
```
  Note: After the container is connected to an I/O node, exit the container. When the test completes, type exit to return to the container.
Review test output.
- Check for errors or warnings indicating dropped packets or threshold violations.
- If InfiniBand is configured, the tool also runs an RDMA test to verify end-to-end communication.
- Ensure that all tests complete successfully before cluster creation. For more information, see Creating a cluster.