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Administering a TCP/IP Network (Tasks)
This chapter contains tasks for administering a TCP/IP network. The following topics are covered:
The tasks assume that you have an operational TCP/IP network at your site, either IPv4-only or dual-stack IPv4/IPv6. If you want to implement IPv6 at your site but have not done so, refer to following chapters for more information:
To plan an IPv6 implementation, refer to Chapter 4, Planning an IPv6 Network (Tasks).
To configure IPv6 and create a dual-stack network environment, refer to Chapter 7, Enabling IPv6 on a Network (Tasks).
Major TCP/IP Administrative Tasks (Task Map)
Task | Description | For Information |
|---|---|---|
Display configuration information about an interface. | Determine the current configuration of each interface on a system. | |
Display interface address assignments. | Determine the address assignments for all interfaces on the local system. | |
Display statistics on a per-protocol basis. | Monitor the performance of the network protocols on a particular system. | |
Display network status. | Monitor your system by displaying all sockets and routing table entries. The output includes the inet address family for IPv4 and inet6 address family for IPv6. | |
Display the status of network interfaces. | Monitor the performance of network interfaces, which is useful for troubleshooting transmission problems. | |
Display packet transmission status. | Monitor the state of packets as they are sent over the wire. | How to Display the Status of Transmissions for Packets of a Specific Address Type |
Control the display output of IPv6-related commands. | Controls the output of the ping, netstat, ifconfig, and traceroute commands. Creates a file that is named inet_type. Sets the DEFAULT_IP variable in this file. | |
Monitor network traffic. | Displays all IP packets by using the snoop command. | |
Trace all routes that are known to the network's routers. | Uses the traceroute command to show all routes. |
Monitoring the Interface Configuration With the ifconfig Command
You use the ifconfig command to manually assign IP addresses to interfaces and to manually configure interface parameters. In addition, the Solaris startup scripts run ifconfig to configure pseudo interfaces, such as 6to4 tunnel endpoints.
This book contains many tasks that use the various options of the versatile ifconfig command. For a complete description of this command, its options, and its variables, refer to the ifconfig(1M) man page. The basic syntax of ifconfig follows:
ifconfig interface [protocol-family]
How to Get Information About a Specific Interface
Use the ifconfig command to determine basic information about the interfaces of a particular system. For example, a simple ifconfig query can tell you the following:
Device names of all interfaces on a system
All IPv4 and, if applicable, all IPv6 addresses that are assigned to the interfaces
Whether these interfaces are currently configured
The following procedure shows how to use the ifconfig command to obtain basic configuration information about a system's interfaces.
On the local host, assume the Primary Administrator role, or become superuser.
The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, "Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks)," in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
Obtain information about a particular interface.
# ifconfig interface
The output from the ifconfig command has the following format:
Status line
The first line in the ifconfig command output includes the interface name and status flags currently associated with the interface. Also, the status line includes the maximum transmission unit (MTU) that is configured for the particular interface and an index number. Use the status line to determine the current state of the interface.
IP address information line
The second line of the ifconfig output includes the IPv4 address or IPv6 address that is configured for the interface. For an IPv4 address, the configured netmask and broadcast address are also displayed.
MAC address line
When you run the ifconfig command as superuser or with a similar role, the ifconfig output contains a third line. For an IPv4 address, the third line shows the MAC address (Ethernet layer address) that is assigned to the interface. For an IPv6 address, the third line in the output shows the link-local address that the IPv6 in.ndpd daemon generates from the MAC address.
Example 8-1 Basic Interface Information From the ifconfig Command
The following example shows how to obtain information about the eri interface on a particular host by using the ifconfig command.
# ifconfig eri
eri0: flags=863<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 1
inet 10.0.0.112 netmask ffffff80 broadcast 10.8.48.127
ether 8:0:20:b9:4c:54
|
The next table describes the variable information in an ifconfig query. The preceding output is used as an example.
Variable | Screen Output | Description |
|---|---|---|
Interface name | eri0 | Indicates the device name of the interface whose status was requested in the ifconfig command. |
Interface status | flags=863<UP | Displays the status of the interface, including any flags that are currently associated with the interface. Here you can determine whether the interface is currently initialized (UP) or not initialized (DOWN). |
Broadcast status | BROADCAST | Indicates that the interface supports IPv4 broadcasts. |
Transmission status | RUNNING | Indicates that the system is transmitting packets through the interface. |
Multicast status | MULTICAST, IPv4 | Shows that the interface supports multicast transmissions. The example interface supports IPv4 multicast transmissions. |
Maximum transmission unit | mtu 1500 | Shows that this interface has a maximum transfer size of 1500 octets. |
IP address | inet 10.0.0.112 | Displays the IPv4 or IPv6 address that is assigned to the interface. Example interface eri0 has the IPv4 address 10.0.0.112. |
Netmask | netmask ffffff80 | Displays the IPv4 netmask of the particular interface. Note that IPv6 addresses do not use netmasks. |
MAC address | ether 8:0:20:b9:4c:54 | Shows the interface's Ethernet layer address. |