Add this planning information to the Public Networks Worksheet.
Internet Protocol (IP) Network Multipathing groups, which replace Network Adapter Failover (NAFO) groups, provide public-network adapter monitoring and failover, and are the foundation for a network-address resource. A multipathing group provides high availability when the multipathing group is configured with two or more adapters. If one adapter fails, all of the addresses on the failed adapter fail over to another adapter in the multipathing group. In this way, the multipathing-group adapters maintain public-network connectivity to the subnet to which the adapters in the multipathing group connect.
The following describes the circumstances when you must manually configure IP Network Multipathing groups during a Sun Cluster software installation:
For Sun Cluster software installations on the Solaris 8 OS, you must manually configure all public network adapters in IP Network Multipathing groups, with test IP addresses.
If you use SunPlex Installer to install Sun Cluster software on the Solaris 9 or Solaris 10 OS, some but not all public network adapters might need to be manually configured in IP Network Multipathing groups.
For Sun Cluster software installations on the Solaris 9 or Solaris 10 OS, except when using SunPlex Installer, the scinstall utility automatically configures all public network adapters as single-adapter IP Network Multipathing groups.
Consider the following points when you plan your multipathing groups.
Each public network adapter must belong to a multipathing group.
In the following kinds of multipathing groups, you must configure a test IP address for each adapter in the group:
On the Solaris 8 OS, all multipathing groups require a test IP address for each adapter.
On the Solaris 9 or Solaris 10 OS, multipathing groups that contain two or more adapters require test IP addresses. If a multipathing group contains only one adapter, you do not need to configure a test IP address.
Test IP addresses for all adapters in the same multipathing group must belong to a single IP subnet.
Test IP addresses must not be used by normal applications because the test IP addresses are not highly available.
In the /etc/default/mpathd file, the value of TRACK_INTERFACES_ONLY_WITH_GROUPS must be yes.
The name of a multipathing group has no requirements or restrictions.
Most procedures, guidelines, and restrictions that are identified in the Solaris documentation for IP Network Multipathing are the same for both cluster and noncluster environments. Therefore, see the appropriate Solaris document for additional information about IP Network Multipathing:
For the Solaris 8 OS, see Deploying Network Multipathing in IP Network Multipathing Administration Guide.
For the Solaris 9 OS, see Chapter 28, Administering Network Multipathing (Task), in System Administration Guide: IP Services.
For the Solaris 10 OS, see Chapter 30, Administering IPMP (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: IP Services.
Also see IP Network Multipathing Groups in Sun Cluster Overview for Solaris OS and Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS.