bonding and vlan configuration options should really be available during ubuntu-server installation

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I second this. In a typical virtualization environment, you have a server with several real network cards. These are typically combined in a bond device. On top of these you have bridges, and on top of those you have vlans. Virtual servers may exist in different networks, so you need this stacked solution of vlan, bridge, bond, nics.

Also bonding should work with different lacp modes such as those available in CISCO switches, or others.

It is totally unclear from the documentation how to do this. There should be tested, failsave documentation for the /etc/network/interfaces file. Right now it is nearly impossible to get exactly right. And even when I get it to work, the network does

Ideally you should be able to do all this from within a GUI, but at the very least the documentation for the interfaces file should radically improve.

I hope Canonical realizes this is CRITICAL for a virtualization server product. A single gigabit line is not enough, so you MUST be able to configure bonding, bridging and vlans easily.

As long as this does not work reliably, you can just forget about ubuntu server.

I unfinished a sentence there:
And even when I get it to work, the network does not come up after a reboot. You have to restart the network by hand.

Oh my, nothing has been done with this yet?
At least include the vlan and ifenslave-2.6 packages with the server isos , they are really small and should be included!

I agree. At least installed the vlan and ifenslave-2.6 package by default.

Sure, I can select these packages during the installation, but that's a lot of work and something which is easily forgotten.

I can also attach the ISO later on and use apt-cdrom, but again, it's a hassle.

If there is no option during the installation, at least install these packages so that after the first boot you can easily configure VLAN and bonding.

P.S.: Yes, the docs around bonding are really lacking.

We already have an option to use VLANs during installation.
Even though it is only available when preseeding with d-i netcfg/vlan_id string - it is still a very useful option.

Having a way to make a bond, even if only through preseeding options would really make ubuntu easier to install in a complex networking environment.