On a RHEL5 machine we have the bond1 with 2 interfaces eth3 and eth8 configured. In the ifcfg-bond1 file if i have the primary as eth8, and i ifdown eth8 then the bond1 ip stops pinging, however if i change the primary to eth3 everything works as expected. we have the primary_reselect (always) in active/backup scenario (mode 1). I am just curious to know why it works only with eth3 as primary. What would be the best way to select the primary interface? I thought it did not matter which interface you put as primary but apparently that does not seem true. One reason i could think is may be the higher amount of throughput of an interface. Both cards are identical running bnx2 driver. Any thoughts?? RHEL 5.8
Thanks
Simon