Second NIC card as failover

Hello,

I am using FreeBSD 5.1 and would like to have two network cards in our
FreeBSD server connected to the same network.

The first network card will be always used for all traffic.

The second network card will be only used in case the first network card
fails (thus NIC 2 being in failover mode).

I don't need load balancing or such features I just want one NIC to be a
failover NIC.

Now my question is: How can I do that with FreeBSD ? Any tutorials or
FAQs would be appreciated. I didn't find this in the FreeBSD handbook or
FAQ.

Many thanks

In article , synuw wrote:
[snip]
>
> I don't need load balancing or such features I just want one NIC to be a
> failover NIC.
>
> Now my question is: How can I do that with FreeBSD ? Any tutorials or
> FAQs would be appreciated. I didn't find this in the FreeBSD handbook or
> FAQ.

Well, how are you going to detect that the first NIC is dead? Answer
that and you know how to build something (a script, a driver, whatnot)
to make it work. OTOH, I'd think it more likely that if the NIC gets
fried there'll be other things dead, too, and the setup would need
manual inspection and/or parts replacement anyway.

Now to come closer to what you asked, you could try and investigate
`VRRP', which does contain a few tricks that might be of use. But
really, you probably need to ask yourself ``what do I really need'',
in terms of function, not features. So, what are you planning to
achieve and why does it boil down to that one extra NIC?


--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .