How to Obtain Status Information About NIC Properties

You can obtain information about the NIC driver's properties by displaying either the Ethernet parameter settings or the link properties.

1. On the system that has the NIC whose properties you want to modify, assume the System Administrator role.

   The System Administrator role includes the Network Management profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 9, Using Role-Based Access Control (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. To obtain information about the Ethernet parameter settings, use the following command:

   # dladm show-ether [-x] data-link

   where the -x option includes additional parameter information about the link. Without the -x option, only the current parameter settings are displayed.

3. To obtain information about all the properties of the link, use the following command:

   # dladm show-linkprop data-link

Example 1–3 Displaying Ethernet Parameter Settings

This example displays an extended list of parameter information about a specified link.

# dladm show-ether -x web1
LINK     PTYPE       STATE    AUTO  SPEED-DUPLEX             PAUSE
web1     current     up       yes   1G-f                     both
--       capable     --       yes   1G-fh,100M-fh,10M-fh     both
--       adv         --       yes   100M-fh,10M-fh           both
--       peeradv     --       yes   100M-f,10M-f             both

With the -x option, the command also displays the built-in capabilities of the specified link, as well as the capabilities that are currently advertised between the host and the link partner. The following information is displayed:

• For the Ethernet device's current state, the link is up and functioning at 1 gigabits per second at full duplex. Its autonegotiation capability is enabled and has bidirectional flow control, in which both host and link partner can send and receive pause frames.

• Regardless of the current setting, the capabilities of the Ethernet device are listed. The negotiation type can be set to automatic, the device can support speeds of 1 gigabits per second, 100 megabits per second, and 10 megabits per second, at both full and half duplex. Likewise, pause frames can be received or sent in both directions between host and link partner.

• The capabilities of web1 are advertised as follows: autonegotiation, speed-duplex, and flow control of pause frames.

• Similarly, web1's link or peer partner advertises the following capabilities: autonegotiation, speed-duplex, and flow control of pause frames.

Example 1–4 Displaying Link Properties

This example shows how to list all the properties of a link. If you want to display only a specific property, you use the -p option with the specific property that you want to monitor.

# dladm show-linkprop web1
LINK     PROPERTY             VALUE       DEFAULT     POSSIBLE
web1     speed                1000        --          -- 
web1     autopush             --          --          -- 
web1     zone                 --          --          -- 
web1     duplex               half        --          half,full 
web1     state                unknown     up          up,down 
web1     adv_autoneg_cap      1           1           1,0 
web1     mtu                  1500        1500        -- 
web1     flowctrl             no          bi          no,tx,rx,bi 
web1     adv_1000fdx_cap      1           1           1,0 
web1     en_1000fdx_cap       1           1           1,0 
web1     adv_1000hdx_cap      1           1           1,0 
web1     en_1000hdx_cap       1           1           1,0 
web1     adv_100fdx_cap       0           0           1,0 
web1     en_100fdx_cap        0           0           1,0 
web1     adv_100hdx_cap       0           0           1,0 
web1     en_100hdx_cap        0           0           1,0 
web1     adv_10fdx_cap        0           0           1,0 
web1     en_10fdx_cap         0           0           1,0 
web1     adv_10hdx_cap        0           0           1,0 
web1     en_10hdx_cap         0           0           1,0

The settings for the speed and duplex capabilities of the link are manually configured on the enabled-speed properties which are labeled en_*_cap. For example, en_1000fdx_cap is the property for the gigabit full-duplex capability, and en_100hdx_cap is the property for the 100 megabits half-duplex capability. The settings of these enabled speed properties are advertised between the host and its link partner by corresponding advertised speed properties, which are labeled adv_*_cap such as adv_1000fdx_cap and adv_100hdx_cap.

Normally, the settings of a given enabled speed property and the corresponding advertised property are identical. However, if a NIC supports some advanced features such as Power Management, those features might set limits on the bits that are actually advertised between the host and its link partner. For example, with Power Management, the values of the adv_*_cap properties might only be a subset of the values of the en_*_cap properties. For more details about the enabled and advertised speed properties, see the dladm(1M) man page.