Networking Enhancements

The following networking enhancements have been added to the Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 release.

BIND 9.6.1 for the Oracle Solaris 10 OS

BIND 9.6.1 updates the Solaris Domain Name System Server. The relevant tools provides the following new features:

• Full NSEC3 [RFC 5155] support

• Automatic zone re-signing

• New update policy methods, tcp-self and 6to4-self

• GSS-TSIG support [RFC 3645]

• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Information (DHCID RR) support [RFC 4701]

• Name Server Identifier (NSID RR) support [RFC 5001]

• Experimental HTTP server and statistics support

• New commands.

  For information about the new commands, see the dnssec-dsfromkey(1M) and dnssec-keyfromlabel(1M) man pages.

GLDv3 Driver APIs

In this release, a core subset of the GLDv3 (Generic LAN Driver version 3) driver APIs are made public, and available for use by 3rd party device driver writers.

For information about how to write an Ethernet driver using the GLDv3 framework, see Chapter 19, Drivers for Network Devices, in Writing Device Drivers.

IPoIB Connected Mode

IP over Infiniband (IPoIB) connected mode introduces an improved capability of the IPoIB driver. Instead of using UD datagrams to communicate, this new feature allows Oracle Solaris nodes to establish connected mode channels to peer nodes that can also support connected mode. This feature improves latency and bandwidth, and lowers CPU utilization for IPoIB. If the peer nodes cannot support connected mode, the driver automatically reverts to the UD datagram mode, thereby assuring connectivity comparable to the original UD-only version of the driver.

Open Fabrics User Verbs Primary Kernel Components

This feature delivers the Open Fabrics Enterprise Edition (OFED) RDMA CM kernel KPIs. It allows kernel modules and drivers to use the OFED defined Infiniband connection management KPIs. It also delivers the kernel components required to interface OFED libraries into the InfiniBand Transport Framework (IBTF).

InfiniBand Infrastructure Enhancements

The InfiniBand infrastructure has been enhanced to improve the user experience and resiliency to fabric errors. Enhancements are as follows:

• The initial installation of InfiniBand nodes on a fabric has been modified to allow IPoIB instances to join the appropriate partition without intervention.

• The enhancement in this release detects and responds quickly to failures of the subnet manager to assure a smooth transition when errors occur.

This feature improves the performance of IPoIB in the UD datagram mode. As a result, you will notice improved throughput in the UD mode and decreased CPU utilization of the IPoIB driver in general. The enhancement, combined with doubling the size of the MTU that can be used on the InfiniBand fabric, greatly improves the usability of IPoIB in both UD and connected modes. Memory registration and speed have also been improved.