Sun Enterprise 250 Server Owner's Guide

How to Add an Ethernet Interface

Before You Begin

Follow this procedure to add a PCI card that provides an additional Ethernet interface.

You must perform the following tasks:

Install the system; see "How to Install the Enterprise 250 Server".

Install any additional PCI Ethernet interface cards that you wish to configure; see "How to Install a PCI Card".

Attach a cable to the new Ethernet port and to the network; see "How to Attach a Twisted-Pair Ethernet (TPE) Cable" or "How to Attach an MII Ethernet Transceiver".

What to Do

Assign a network host name to the interface.

The host name must be unique within the network. It can be made up of characters and numbers. Do not use a dot in the host name. Do not begin the name with a number or a special character.

Usually an interface host name is based on the machine host name. For example, if the machine is assigned the host name zardoz, then the additional Ethernet interface could be named zardoz-1. The machine's host name is assigned when the operating system software is installed. For more information, see the installation instructions accompanying the Solaris software.

Determine the IP address for the interface.

An IP address must be assigned by your network administrator. Each interface on a network must have a unique IP address.

Boot the operating system and log on to the system as superuser.

Enter the following command at the system prompt, and the superuser password:
```
zardoz # su
Password:
```

Create an appropriate /etc/hostname file for the new interface.

The name of the file you create should be of the form /etc/hostname.typenum, where type is the Ethernet type identifier (some common types are hme, le, nf, and ie) and num is the logical number of the interface according to the order in which it was installed in the system.

For example, the standard interface provided on the system's main logic board is hme0 (type = hme, num = 0). If you add a SunSwift(TM) PCI Ethernet adapter card as a second hme interface, the file name should be hostname.hme1.

Note -
The documentation accompanying the Ethernet interface should identify its type. Alternatively, you can enter the show-devs command from the ok prompt to obtain a list of all installed devices.

The host name has an associated IP address that you enter in the /etc/hosts file. See Step 6.

Enter the host name, assigned in Step 1, to the /etc/hostname file for the new interface.

Following is an example of the /etc/hostname files required for a machine called zardoz, which has two Ethernet interfaces--the standard on-board Ethernet interface (hme0) and a second interface provided by a PCI Ethernet adapter card (hme1). The host name will be zardoz to a network connected to the standard hme0 interface, and zardoz-1 to a network connected to the hme1 interface.
```
zardoz # cat /etc/hostname.hme0
zardoz
zardoz # cat /etc/hostname.hme1
zardoz-1
```

Create an entry in the /etc/hosts file for each active Ethernet interface.

An entry consists of the IP address and the host name for each interface.

The following example shows the entries in the /etc/hosts file for the interfaces identified in the /etc/hostname file created in Step 4 and Step 5.
```
zardoz # cat /etc/hosts
...
127.0.0.1     localhost
129.144.10.57 zardoz    loghost
129.144.11.83 zardoz-1
```

Reboot the system; enter:
```
zardoz # reboot -- -r
```
This command rebuilds the device trees so that the system will recognize the newly installed PCI Ethernet adapter card.

What Next

After completing this procedure, the Ethernet interface is ready for operation. However, in order for other network devices to communicate with the system through this interface, the interface information (its IP address and host name) must be entered into the namespace on the network name server. For information about setting up a network name service, consult the Solaris System Administrator AnswerBook for your specific Solaris release.