A different network interface becomes the default route if the active default goes down

Question

I have two network interfaces eth0 and eth1 and I just wanna know how get the "eth1" as default route automatically if the "eth0" goes down?

Please define goes down. Does eth0 lose link or is does something upstream break? Are eth0, and eth1 connected to the same switch, or are they connected to different routers/networks.

voretaq7 · Answer 1 · 2011-06-03 21:38:16Z

up vote 2 down vote

What you want is called interface bonding - There are lots of howtos on setting this up, this one is good for bare-bones "type this" information, and this one has a little more information.

The ifcfg-bonding manpage (& references) may also be of help, and is probably more up-to-date than any tutorials you'd find by googling..

answered Jun 3 '11 at 21:38

voretaq7♦
50.3k657121

	I hadn't considered bonding as the answer here, maybe simply because of the phrasing of OPs question. This may be the right answer but its hard to tell. – dmourati Jun 3 '11 at 21:45
	@dmourati same way I didn't think of it being two NICs on different networks -- it's a bit vague :) – voretaq7♦ Jun 3 '11 at 21:51

dmourati · Answer 2 · 2011-06-03 21:42:58Z

You can use the metric argument to route. Metrics are counted as additional hops to the destination network or host.

route add default gw eth1defaultroute metric 10 dev eth1

This is the "old school" way of doing things.

You may also be interested to learn about iproute2:

ip route add default via eth1defaultroute metric 10 dev eth1

For more details, see:

... If you're talking about two NICs on different subnets this is the way to go.

dmourati · Answer 3 · 2011-06-07 16:33:34Z

up vote 0 down vote

Yet a third option is using BGP.

answered Jun 7 '11 at 16:33

dmourati
4,415727

3 Answers