How to Configure the Network Card in a Bare Metal Server?

Learn how to configure your network card and how redundancy works.

NOTE: For this example, we use CentOS 7. The steps might be different for different Linux distributions.

First, navigate to:

If the dedicated server only has one network card, the network card configuration should be as follows:

This file can be opened using any text editor. In our case:

NOTE: If you decide to use the single network card method (not bond0), configure only NIC A, as NIC B will work only as bond0 redundancy.

Some of our dedicated servers have network redundancy. For that, you need to configure the bond interface.

Once you create the Bond interface, both network interfaces should be as follows:

Once both network cards are configured, you need to run this command:

Afterward, restart the network service:

NOTE: BONDING_OPTS=”mode=4 miimon=100 lacp_rate=fast” is required for our system to work. Changing the mode from 4 to 3 might cause problems. For example, that might lead to packet loss. We recommend using the line as provided.

In some of our locations, a dedicated server is given /29. In others, /30. Due to this, the mask of your server might be different. The prefix can be checked by running the command

and then checking the netmask (/29: 255.255.255.248, /30: 255.255.255.252) or contacting our support.

NOTE: If your system is running the NetworkManager service, we recommend stopping it. You can do it using:

and

If you do not require network redundancy, you should only set up the first network card. If you set up the second network card, it will not work, as it only works on the bonded interface.

A glossary of network interface configuration files:

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact our Support at support@heficed.com.