bond0:backup interface eth0 is now up(repeat)

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am new to using the channel bonding driver.  So, any help would be appreciated.  Thx.

Basically, I have one 3Com 3c905b (using 3c59x driver) and an integrated Intel NIC using e100 driver.  Both of them are ifenslaved to bond0.  The last update on the bonding driver bond_main.c is 2003/05/22.

The question I have is when the backup interface gets activated or when a recovered interface (the link failed and the up) get activated, the kernel recorded over 300 times of the following messages:

bond0: backup interface eth0 is now up
bond0: backup interface eth0 is now down
bond0: backup interface eth0 is now up
bond0: backup interface eth0 is now down
bond0: backup interface eth0 is now up
bond0: backup interface eth0 is now down
....

or something like
bond0: backup interface eth2 is now up
last message repeated 384 times

During the time these messages were displayed, traffic from ping does not go through.  After about 30 sec, messages such as
bond0: eth0 is up and now the active interface
or
bond0: eth2 is up and now the active interface
was displayed, then traffic would go through again.

What is causing all those repeated messages?  It looks like the bonding driver was in a loop.  From the experiment, I can see that there is a 30 sec down time.  Is there something I can do to get ride of the down time?
I also used mii-diag --monitor to monitor both interfaces. 
All "down/negotiating/up" messages are shown almost instantuously after the link went down/up.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I would like to add:
the bond driver was loaded with the following parameters
arp_interval=20 arp_ip_target=10.1.5.100

I also tested with a different set of parameters
arp_interval=200 arp_ip_target=10.1.5.100
Results from this set is pretty simular to the ones above

To make things more interesting, I also tried miimon (without arp monitoring).  Bond driver setting was
miimon=20
and
miimon=200
For 3Com 3c905b, it took close to 50 sec for the bond driver to switch over;  For Intel integrated NIC, it took a bit over 1 sec.

Any ideas what is causing the delay?

Thx