Ring allocation in VLANs differs based on how the VLAN is created.
You can create a VLAN in the following ways:
By using the dladm create-vlan command:
# dladm create-vlan –l link –v vid VLAN
If you create a VLAN by using the dladm create-vlan command, it shares the same MAC address as the underlying datalink. Therefore, the VLAN also shares the Rx and Tx rings of the underlying datalink. For more information about configuring VLANs, see Configuring a VLAN in Managing Network Datalinks in Oracle Solaris 11.2 .
By using the dladm create-vnic command:
# dladm create-vnic –l link –v vid VNIC
If you create a VLAN as a VNIC by using the dladm create-vnic command, it has a different MAC address from its underlying datalink. The allocation of rings for this type of VLAN is independent of the allocation of the underlying datalink. Hence, the VLAN can be assigned its own dedicated rings, assuming that the NIC supports hardware-based clients. For more information about how to assign rings to clients, see Configuring Clients and Allocating Rings.