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Administering IPMP (Tasks)
This chapter provides tasks for administering interface groups with IP network multipathing (IPMP). The following major topics are discussed:
Replacing a Failed Physical Interface on Systems That Support Dynamic Reconfiguration
Recovering a Physical Interface That Was Not Present at System Boot
For an overview of IPMP concepts, refer to Chapter 30, Introducing IPMP (Overview).
Configuring IPMP (Task Maps)
This section contains links to the tasks that are described in this chapter.
Configuring and Administering IPMP Groups (Task Map)
Task | Description | For Instructions |
|---|---|---|
Plan for an IPMP group. | Lists all ancillary information and required tasks before you can configure an IPMP group. | |
Configure an IPMP interface group with multiple interfaces. | Configures multiple interfaces as members of an IPMP group. | |
Configure an IPMP group where one of the interfaces is a standby interface. | Configures one of the interfaces in a multiple interface IPMP group as a standby interface. | |
Configure an IPMP group that consists of a single interface. | Creates a single interface IPMP group. | |
Display the IPMP group to which a physical interface belongs. | Explains how to obtain the name of an interface's IPMP group from the output of the ifconfig command. | |
Add an interface to an IPMP group. | Configures a new interface as a member of an existing IPMP group. | |
Remove an interface from an IPMP group. | Explains how to remove an interface from an IPMP group. | |
Move an interface from an existing IPMP group to a different group. | Moves interfaces among IPMP groups. | How to Move an Interface From One IPMP Group to Another Group |
Change three default settings for the in.mpathd daemon. | Customizes failure detection time and other parameters of the in.mpathd daemon. |
Administering IPMP on Interfaces That Support Dynamic Reconfiguration (Task Map)
Task | Description | For Instructions |
|---|---|---|
Remove an interface that has failed. | Removes a failed interface on a system. | How to Remove a Physical Interface That Has Failed (DR-Detach) |
Replace an interface that has failed. | Replaces a failed interface. | How to Replace a Physical Interface That Has Failed (DR-Attach) |
Recover an interface that was not configured at boot time. | Recovers a failed interface. | How to Recover a Physical Interface That Was Not Present at System Boot |
Configuring IPMP Groups
This section provides procedures for configuring IPMP groups. It also describes how to configure an interface as a standby.
Planning for an IPMP Group
Before you configure interfaces on a system as part of an IPMP group, you need to do some preconfiguration planning.
How to Plan for an IPMP Group
The following procedure includes the planning tasks and information to be gathered prior to configuring the IPMP group. The tasks do not have to be performed in sequence.
Decide which interfaces on the system are to be part of the IPMP group.
An IPMP group usually consists of at least two physical interfaces that are connected to the same IP link. However, you can configure a single interface IPMP group, if required. For an introduction to IPMP groups, refer to IPMP Interface Configurations. For example, you can configure the same Ethernet switch or the same IP subnet under the same IPMP group. You can configure any number of interfaces into the same IPMP group.
You cannot use the group parameter of the ifconfig command with logical interfaces. For example, you can use the group parameter with hme0, but not with hme0:1.
Verify that each interface in the group has a unique MAC address.
For instructions, refer to SPARC: How to Ensure That the MAC Address of an Interface Is Unique, in Solaris 10 3/05 ONLY or SPARC: How to Ensure That the MAC Address of an Interface Is Unique.
Choose a name for the IPMP group.
Any non-null name is appropriate for the group. You might want to use a name that identifies the IP link to which the interfaces are attached.
Ensure that the same set of STREAMS modules is pushed and configured on all interfaces in the IPMP group.
All interfaces in the same group must have the same STREAMS modules configured in the same order.
Check the order of STREAMS modules on all interfaces in the prospective IPMP group.
You can print out a list of STREAMS modules by using the ifconfig interface modlist command. For example, here is the ifconfig output for an hme0 interface:
# ifconfig hme0 modlist 0 arp 1 ip 2 hme
Interfaces normally exist as network drivers directly below the IP module, as shown in the output from ifconfig hme0 modlist. They should not require additional configuration.
However, certain technologies, such as NCA or IP Filter, insert themselves as STREAMS modules between the IP module and the network driver. Problems can result in the way interfaces of the same IPMP group behave.
If a STREAMS module is stateful, then unexpected behavior can occur on failover, even if you push the same module onto all of the interfaces in a group. However, you can use stateless STREAMS modules, provided that you push them in the same order on all interfaces in the IPMP group.
Push the modules of an interface in the standard order for the IPMP group.
ifconfig interface modinsert module-name
ifconfig hme0 modinsert ip
Use the same IP addressing format on all interfaces of the IPMP group.
If one interface is configured for IPv4, then all interfaces of the group must be configured for IPv4. Suppose you have an IPMP group that is composed of interfaces from several NICs. If you add IPv6 addressing to the interfaces of one NIC, then all interfaces in the IPMP group must be configured for IPv6 support.
Check that all interfaces in the IPMP group are connected to the same IP link.
Verify that the IPMP group does not contain interfaces with different network media types.
The interfaces that are grouped together should be of the same interface type, as defined in /usr/include/net/if_types.h. For example, you cannot combine Ethernet and Token ring interfaces in an IPMP group. As another example, you cannot combine a Token bus interface with asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces in the same IPMP group.
For IPMP with ATM interfaces, configure the ATM interfaces in LAN emulation mode.
IPMP is not supported for interfaces using Classical IP over ATM.