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ToddDTaft
Contributor
Contributor

Fusion and LAG/LACP

Is there any way to simulate any form of network bonding, such as link aggregation groups (LAG) or link aggregation control protocol (LACP/IEEE 802.3ad) with the desktop products, such as Fusion 12 Pro (or Workstation)?  I see a way to add multiple network interfaces to a guest, but I don't see any way to configure any sort of bonding in the guest settings.  When I tried to configure LACP on a Ubuntu 20.04 guest, the system wouldn't do any network communication at all on the bonded interfaces (even to simulate a bonded interface where all but one of the ports on the remote switch had stopped working).  I usually like to do almost all of the initial guest image creation on a Mac desktop/laptop system because that's a whole lot more pleasant than having to do it in a server room or deal with network lag of trying to do a remote virtual console to a server (e.g. ESXi) machine.

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

LACP/802.3ad requires protocols normally provided in a network switch which AFAIK Fusion or workstation does not provide with ther virtual networking configurations.  Without switch ports configured to deliver these protocols, the bonding attempt at the system will fail. 

Not sure this helps but if your guests are Linux the kernels have other network bonding modes that do not require special switch configuration and might work with multiple interfaces on Fusion (haven’t tried it though). Check out the docs on the Linux bonding driver. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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