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2 NICs, 2 subnets, 2 paths: can I do this?

I have two machines, each with 2 NICs, connected to the same two subnets (192.168.1. & 192.168.2.). I was thinking of setting up my host tables like this:

On machineA:
192.168.1.11 machineA
192.168.1.12 machineB # machineA looks for machineB on subnet 1

On machineB:
192.168.2.11 machineA
192.168.1.12 machineB # machineB looks for machineA on subnet 2

to spread the traffic between these machines over the two subnets. Am I setting myself up for trouble doing this? Will it work?

I doubt it matters, but I'm running Linux (FC1).

pseudocyber

I don't think this will work - you want traffic to travel in a circle?!?!?

You might be able to get funky with host files, but if A initiates a conversation to B over subnet1, B will learn A's physical address and rember it (ARP cache) and use it to repy to A over subnet1, not subnet 2.

Are these machines only going to talk to each other? So you won't have any default gateway? Or would you put it on one subnet on one and vice versa?

I assume you're doing this as a learning experiment - if you're trying to load balance your connections and improve throughput, it won't work.

fatlad

You maybe able to configure some sort of FastEtherChannel link, whereby they will share a virtual MAC and then load balance traffic, never seen it done back to back and it is not possible with two different subnets!

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Kooroo

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PennGwyn

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jwolter

ASKER

Since people were wondering what I'm trying to do here, I've actually got a whole cluster of machines, and I happen to have two switches and two NIC's on each machine. So I thought it might be a cheap way to spread some of the load out. Thanks for the comments everyone.

John