In newer versions of Ubuntu they require you to put the config for the bond interface above the eth interface configs. Or the interface will not come up correctly and pings will fail.
Source: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/precise/ifenslave-2.6/precise/view/head:/debian/README.Debian
example:

1. The loopback network interface

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
address 10.178.2.48
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 10.178.2.0
gateway 10.178.2.60
bond_slaves none
mtu 9000
bond-mode active-backup
bond_miimon 100
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth4
iface eth4 inet manual
bond-master bond0
bond-primary eth4 eth5
auto eth5
iface eth5 inet manual
bond-master bond0
bond-primary eth4 eth5

1. Static route
   up route add -net 10.0.0.0/8 gw 10.178.2.1 dev bond0
   opsadmin@ashbdrymess01p:~$

Mod Probe:
 vi /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.conf
-alias bond0 bonding
-options bonding mode=1 miimon=100
Then do these commands
-modprobe bond0

Ubuntu 12 Two Bond Setup
auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
address 206.80.62.37
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 206.80.62.0
gateway 206.80.62.1
dns-nameservers 10.178.2.40 10.178.2.41
bond_slaves none
mtu 1500
bond-mode active-backup
bond_miimon 100
auto bond1
iface bond1 inet static
address 10.178.2.78
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 10.178.2.0
gateway 10.178.2.60
bond_slaves none
mtu 9000
bond-mode active-backup
bond_miimon 100
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
bond-master bond0
bond-primary eth0 eth1
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet manual
bond-master bond0
bond-primary eth0 eth1
auto eth4
iface eth4 inet manual
bond-master bond1
bond-primary eth4 eth5
auto eth5
iface eth5 inet manual
bond-master bond1
bond-primary eth4 eth5
#Static route
up route add -net 10.0.0.0/8 gw 10.178.2.1 dev bond1
up route add -net 10.128.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 10.178.2.73
up route add -net 10.127.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 10.178.2.73
up route add -net 10.130.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 10.178.2.73
Details:
ifenslave for Debian
----------------------
The ifenslave program distributed with the Linux kernel sources has not always
been up to date, and several modified versions have been floating around. The
latest kernels now contain an updated version though. The Debian package
ifenslave will now use the version found in the kernel, without any patches.
You can also enslave interfaces using Debian's /etc/network/interfaces file
by creating a stanza for the bonding interface and a stanza for each regular
interface that should be enslaved to the bonding master.
For a list of the supported bonding related options that can be used in
/etc/network/interfaces, see "List of bonding related options" below.
See also the examples directory for some common configurations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A bonding master is defined like this:
iface bond0 inet static
address 208.77.188.166
...
bond_slaves none
The bonding slaves should then be defined like this:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
bond-master bond0
bond-primary eth0 eth1
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet manual
bond-master bond0
bond-primary eth0 eth1
Previous versions of the package supported specifying the slaves all in the
stanza for the bonding interface, using the "bond_slaves" option. However,
in such a configuration there is a race condition between bringing up the
hardware driver for the ethernet devices and attempting to bring up the
bonded interface; the bonding interface needs to be initiated from the slave
interfaces instead.
You can set additional bonding options by adding them to the interface
section:
bond_mode active-backup
bond_primary eth0
This would run the bonding device in active backup mode with eth0 as primary.
If the master interface is not available at the time the first slave is setup,
it will be created and setup according to bond_* options in the slave stanza.
For this reason, in order to get consistent results, the values of all the
bond_* options should normally be identical in the master stanza and in all the
possible slave stanzas. However, there exists some good reasons to have
different options in different stanza, for example, to change the primary slave
when hotpluging a new slave.
Using ifup on a master interface will call ifup for all slaves that are
flagged with allow-bondX. (bondX being replaced by the master interface
name). This will allow for extra setup for special slave interfaces.
Using ifdown on a master interface will cause all slaves to be freed and
disabled. The master is also cleaned-up to ensure reliable results if the
master is brought up later.
Using ifup on a slave interface will bring the master interface up if not already
up, but without calling ifup for the master interface, to avoid an infinite loop.
Using ifdown on a slave interface will cause this interface to be freed but
won't change the master in any other way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of bonding related options.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is the list of bond-* options that can be used in a stanza in
/etc/network/interfaces. For a more general description of the interfaces file,
read the man for interfaces(5).
Most of these options are used to write into bonding related files in some
subdirectories of /sys.
For the expected effects of writing into bonding related /sys files, please read
the bonding documentation (Documentation/networking/bonding.txt) in the linux
Kernel source tree.
If you think that a bond-* option should exist to write into a bonding related
writable file in /sys, but no bond-* option exists for that, please report a
bug on the ifenslave-2.6 package.
Last checked for kernel version 2.6.35-rc1.

• bond-active-slave:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/active_slave
  Also force the slave to be up.

• bond-ad-select:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/ad_select

• bond-arp-interval:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/arp_interval
  One of bond-miimon or bond-arp-interval should be given, otherwise,
  bonding wont detect link failure. If using bond-arp-interval,
  bond-arp-ip-target must also be used.
  If both bond-arp-interval and bond-miimon options are given,
  bond-arp-interval will be ignored.

• bond-arp-ip-target:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/arp_ip_target
  Several IP addresses can be given to bond-arp-ip-target.
  You must not add a + sign in front of the target ip addresses.

• bond-arp-validate:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/arp_validate

• bond-downdelay:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/downdelay

• bond-fail-over-mac:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/fail_over_mac

• bond-give-a-chance:
  This option is designed to workaround a bug in wpa_supplicant, when used with
  bonding:
  With some version of the Linux Kernel, one must use the -b option of
  wpa_supplicant to tell wpa_supplicant that it must expect wifi authentication
  packets on the master interface. This is required because until recently
  (2.6.30 ?) it was not possible to receive a packet on a slave interface.
  Unfortunately, this -b option has the side effect of also sending wifi
  authentication packets on the master interface. If the active interface is
  not the wifi interface at the time wpa_supplicant tries to authenticate, the
  wifi AP won't receive anything, causing the authentication to fail.

If the option bond-give-a-chance is set for a slave interface, then this
interface will be forced to be the primary (and so active) interface for the
given number of seconds or until the wifi link is up, whichever comes first.
This will give a chance for the wifi authentication to succeed, hence the name
of the option.
You should use the bond-give-a-chance option if you also use the wpa-bridge
option from wpasupplicant package, that set the -b option of wpa_supplicant.
If you don't use the wap-bridge option, you probably don't need the
bond-give-a-chance option.

• bond-lacp-rate:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/lacp_rate

• bond-master:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/slaves
  The bond-master option is used in slave stanza, to give the name of
  the master (bonding) interface to which this slave should be enslaved.
  One of bond-master or bond-slaves must be given for all other bond-*
  options to have any effect.
  If both bond-master and bond-slaves options are given, bond-slaves will
  be ignored.

• bond-miimon:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/miimon
  One of bond-miimon or bond-arp-interval should be given, otherwise,
  bonding wont detect link failure.

• bond-mode:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/mode

• bond-num-grat-arp:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/num_grat_arp

• bond-num-unsol-na:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/num_unsol_na

• bond-primary:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/primary
  Several interfaces can be given to bond-primary. The first interface
  that is found to be enslaved would become the primary. If no slave
  in bond-primary is found, then primary does not change.
  You must not add a + sign in front of the slave interface names.

• bond-primary-reselect:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/primary_reselect

• bond-queue-id:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/queue_id
  Several <interface>:<queue_id> pairs can be given to bond-queue-id,
  separated by space.

• bond-slaves:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/slaves
  The bond-master option is used in master stanza, to give the names of
  the slave interfaces to enslave to this master (bonding) interface.
  One of bond-master or bond-slaves must be given for all other bond-*
  options to have any effect.
  If both bond-master and bond-slaves options are given, bond-slaves will
  be ignored.
  You must not add a + sign in front of the slave interface names.

• bond-updelay:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/updelay

• bond-use-carrier:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/use_carrier

• bond-xmit_hash_policy:
  Write into /sys/class/net/<bond>/bonding/xmit_hash_policy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following files in /sys/class/net/bond*/bonding are read-only, so no
corresponding bond-* option exists to write into them.

• ad_actor_key
• ad_aggregator
• ad_num_ports
• ad_partner_key
• ad_partner_mac
• mii_status

Please report a bug on package ifenslave-2.6, if one of them happens to become
writable but no corresponding bond-* option exist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guus Sliepen <guus@debian.org>, Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:33:43 +0100
Nicolas de Pesloüan <nicolas.2p.debian@free.fr>, Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:00:00 +0100