What's New With IPMP

The following features differentiate the current IPMP implementation from the previous implementation:

• An IPMP group is represented as an IPMP IP interface. This interface is treated just like any other interface on the IP layer of the networking stack. All IP administrative tasks, routing tables, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) tables, firewall rules, and other IP-related procedures work with an IPMP group by referring to the IPMP interface.

• The system becomes responsible for the distribution of data addresses among underlying active interfaces. In the previous IPMP implementation, the administrator initially determines the binding of data addresses to corresponding interfaces when the IPMP group is created. In the current implementation, when the IPMP group is created, data addresses belong to the IPMP interface as an address pool. The kernel then automatically and randomly binds the data addresses to the underlying active interfaces of the group.

• The ipmpstat tool is introduced as the principal tool to obtain information about IPMP groups. This command provides information about all aspects of the IPMP configuration, such as the underlying IP interfaces of the group, test and data addresses, types of failure detection being used, and which interfaces have failed. The ipmpstat functions, the options you can use, and the output each option generates are all described in Monitoring IPMP Information.

• The IPMP interface can be assigned a customized name to identify the IPMP group more easily within your network setup. For the procedures to configure IPMP groups with customized names, see any procedure that describes the creation of an IPMP group in Configuring IPMP Groups.