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Reverting NIC bonds

If reverting a XenServer host to a non-bonded configuration, be aware that the bond-destroy command
automatically configures the primary-slave as the interface to be used for the primary management interface.
Consequently, all VIFs will be moved to the primary management interface.
The term primary-slave refers to the PIF that the MAC and IP configuration was copied from when creating the
bond. When bonding two NICs, the primary slave is:
1. The primary management interface NIC (if the primary management interface is one of the bonded NICs).
2. Any other NIC with an IP address (if the primary management interface was not part of the bond).
3. The first named NIC. You can find out which one it is by running the following:
xe bond-list params=all
Creating NIC bonds in resource pools
Whenever possible, create NIC bonds as part of initial resource pool creation prior to joining additional hosts
to the pool or creating VMs. Doing so allows the bond configuration to be automatically replicated to hosts as
they are joined to the pool and reduces the number of steps required. Adding a NIC bond to an existing pool
requires one of the following:
• Using the CLI to configure the bonds on the master and then each member of the pool.
• Using the CLI to configure the bonds on the master and then restarting each member of the pool so that it
inherits its settings from the pool master.
• Using XenCenter to configure the bonds on the master. XenCenter automatically synchronizes the networking
settings on the member servers with the master, so you do not need to reboot the member servers.
For simplicity and to prevent misconfiguration, Citrix recommends using XenCenter to create NIC bonds. For
details, refer to the XenCenter Help.
This section describes using the xe CLI to create bonded NIC interfaces on XenServer hosts that comprise a
resource pool. See the section called “Creating a NIC bond” for details on using the xe CLI to create NIC bonds
on a standalone XenServer host.
Warning:
Do not attempt to create network bonds while HA is enabled. The process of bond creation
will disturb the in-progress HA heartbeating and cause hosts to self-fence (shut themselves
down); subsequently they will likely fail to reboot properly and will need the host-emergency-
ha-disable command to recover.

Adding NIC bonds to new resource pools

1. Select the host you want to be the master. The master host belongs to an unnamed pool by default. To create
a resource pool with the CLI, rename the existing nameless pool:
xe pool-param-set name-label=<"New Pool"> uuid=<pool_uuid>
2. Create the NIC bond as described in the section called “Creating a NIC bond”.
3. Open a console on a host that you want to join to the pool and run the command:
xe pool-join master-address=<host1> master-username=root master-password=<password>
The network and bond information is automatically replicated to the new host. The primary management
interface is automatically moved from the host NIC where it was originally configured to the bonded PIF
(that is, the primary management interface is now absorbed into the bond so that the entire bond functions
as the primary management interface).