Go to main content

Managing Network Virtualization and Network Resources in Oracle® Solaris 11.3

Exit Print View

Updated: April 2018
 
 

Allocating Rings in MAC Clients

MAC clients such as physical datalinks and VNICs are configured over a NIC to enable communication between a system and other network nodes. A MAC client can be either a hardware-based client or a software-based client.

Hardware-based Clients

Clients that have exclusive use of one or more NIC rings are called hardware-based clients. You can assign rings for exclusive use by hardware-based clients depending on the ring allocation supported by the NICs.

Software-based Clients

Clients that do not have exclusive use of NIC rings are called software-based clients. They share rings with other existing software-based clients or with the primary client. The rings that the software-based clients use depend on the number of hardware-based clients that have priority in ring allocation.