| Sun Fire V445 Server Administration Guide |    
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| Sun Fire V445 Server Administration Guide |
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| C H A P T E R 7 |
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Managing Network Interfaces |
This chapter describes how to manage network interfaces.
This chapter contains the following sections:
The Sun Fire V445 server provides four on-board Sun Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, which reside on the system motherboard and conform to the IEEE 802.3z Ethernet standard. For an illustration of the Ethernet ports, see FIGURE 1-7. The Ethernet interfaces operate at 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps.
Four back panel ports with RJ-45 connectors provide access to the on-board Ethernet interfaces. Each interface is configured with a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address. Each connector features two LED indicators, as described in TABLE 1-5. Additional Ethernet interfaces or connections to other network types are available by installing the appropriate PCI interface cards.
The system's on-board interfaces can be configured for redundancy, or an additional network interface card can serve as a redundant network interface for one of the system's on-board interfaces. If the active network interface becomes unavailable, the system can automatically switch to the redundant interface to maintain availability. This capability is known as automatic failover and must be configured at the Solaris OS level. In addition, this configuration provides outbound data load balancing for increased performance. For additional details, see About Redundant Network Interfaces.
The Ethernet driver is installed automatically during the Solaris installation procedure.
For instructions on configuring the system network interfaces, see:
Two Sun Gigabit Ethernet (bge0 and bge1) interfaces are on one controller and two (bge2 and bge3) are on another controller. These interfaces are connected to the Broadcom 5714 chips, which are Dual Ethernet controller and PCI-X bridge components.
You can configure your system with redundant network interfaces to provide a highly available network connection. Such a configuration relies on special Solaris software features to detect a failed or failing network interface and automatically switch all network traffic over to the redundant interface. This capability is known as automatic failover.
To set up redundant network interfaces, you can enable automatic failover between the two similar interfaces using the IP Network Multipathing feature of the Solaris OS. For additional details, see About Multipathing Software. You can also install a pair of identical PCI network interface cards, or add a single card that provides an interface identical to one of the two on-board Ethernet interfaces.
To ensure maximum redundancy, each on-board Ethernet interface resides on a different PCI bus. To help further maximize system availability, ensure that any additional network interfaces added for redundancy also reside on separate PCI buses, which are supported by separate PCI bridges. For additional details, see About the PCI Cards and Buses.
You must complete this task in the following section.
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1. Install the server into the rack.
Refer to the Sun Fire V445 Server Installation Guide.
2. Locate the RJ-45 twisted-pair Ethernet (TPE) connector for the appropriate Ethernet interface - the left top (net0), left bottom (net1), right top (net2, right bottom (net3).
See Locating Back Panel Features. For a PCI Ethernet adapter card, see the documentation supplied with the card.
3. Connect a Category-5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable to the appropriate RJ-45 connector on the system back panel.
You should hear the connector tab click into place. The UTP cable length must not exceed 100 meters (328 feet).
4. Connect the other end of the cable to the RJ-45 outlet of the appropriate network device.
You should hear the connector tab click into place.
Consult your network documentation if you need more information about how to connect to your network.
If you are installing your system, complete the installation procedure, as described in the Sun Fire V445 Server Installation Guide.
If you are adding an additional network interface to the system, you need to configure that interface. See:
For background information, see:
If you are using a PCI network interface card, see the documentation supplied with the card.
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1. Choose a network port, using the following table as a guide.
2. Attach an Ethernet cable to the port you chose.
See Attaching a Twisted-Pair Ethernet Cable.
3. Choose a network host name for the system and make a note of it.
You need to furnish the name in a later step.
The host name must be unique within the network. It can consist only of alphanumeric characters and the dash (-). Do not use a dot in the host name. Do not begin the name with a number or a special character. The name must not be longer than 30 characters.
4. Determine the unique Internet Protocol (IP) address of the network interface and make a note of it.
You need to furnish the address in a later step.
An IP address must be assigned by the network administrator. Each network device or interface must have a unique IP address.
During installation of the Solaris OS, the software automatically detects the system's on-board network interfaces and any installed PCI network interface cards for which native Solaris device drivers exist. The OS then asks you to select one of the interfaces as the primary network interface and prompts you for its host name and IP address. You can configure only one network interface during installation of the OS. You must configure any additional interfaces separately, after the OS is installed. For more information, see Configuring Additional Network Interfaces.
After completing this procedure, the primary network interface is ready for operation. However, in order for other network devices to communicate with the system, you must enter the system's IP address and host name into the namespace on the network name server. For information about setting up a network name service, consult:
The device driver for the system's on-board Sun Gigabit Ethernet interfaces is automatically installed with the Solaris release. For information about operating characteristics and configuration parameters for this driver, refer to the following document:
This document is available on the Solaris on Sun Hardware AnswerBook, which is provided on the Solaris CD or DVD for your specific Solaris release.
If you want to set up an additional network interface, you must configure it separately, after installing the OS. See:
Perform the following tasks to prepare an additional network interface:
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1. Choose a network host name for each new interface.
You need to furnish the name in a later step.
The host name must be unique within the network. It can consist only of alphanumeric characters and the dash (-). Do not use a dot in the host name. Do not begin the name with a number or a special character. The name must not be longer than 30 characters.
Usually an interface host name is based on the system host name. For more information, see the installation instructions accompanying the Solaris software.
2. Determine the Internet Protocol (IP) address for each new interface.
You need to furnish the IP address in a later step.
An IP address must be assigned by your network administrator. Each interface on a network must have a unique IP address.
3. Boot the OS, if it is not already running.
Be sure to perform a reconfiguration boot if you just added a new PCI network interface card. See Initiating a Reconfiguration Boot.
4. Log in to the system as superuser.
5. Create an appropriate /etc/hostname file for each new network interface.
The name of the file you create should be of the form /etc/hostname.typenum, where type is the network interface type identifier (some common types are ce, le, hme, eri, and ge) and num is the device instance number of the interface according to the order in which it was installed in the system.
For example, the file names for the system's Gigabit Ethernet interfaces are /etc/hostname.ce0 and /etc/hostname.ce1. If you add a PCI Fast Ethernet adapter card as a third interface, its file name should be /etc/hostname.eri0. At least one of these files, the primary network interface, should exist already, having been created automatically during the Solaris installation process.
6. Edit the /etc/hostname file(s) created in Step 5 to add the host name(s) determined in Step 1.
Following is an example of the /etc/hostname files required for a system called sunrise, which has two on-board Sun Gigabit Ethernet interfaces (bge0 and bge1) and an Intel Ophir Gigabit Ethernet adapter (e1000g0). A network connected to the on-board bge0 and bge1 interfaces will know the system as sunrise and sunrise-1, while networks connected to the PCI-based e1000g0 interface will know the system as sunrise-2.
sunrise # cat /etc/hostname.bge0 sunrise sunrise # cat /etc/hostname.bge1 sunrise-1 sunrise # cat /etc/hostname.e1000g0 sunrise-2 |
7. Create an entry in the /etc/hosts file for each active network interface.
An entry consists of the IP address and the host name for each interface.
The following example shows an /etc/hosts file with entries for the three network interfaces used as examples in this procedure.
sunrise # cat /etc/hosts # # Internet host table # 127.0.0.1 localhost 129.144.10.57 sunrise loghost 129.144.14.26 sunrise-1 129.144.11.83 sunrise-2 |
8. Manually configure and enable each new interface using the ifconfig command.
For example, for the interface eri0, type:
For more information, see the ifconfig(1M) man page.
After completing this procedure, any new network interfaces are ready for operation. However, in order for other network devices to communicate with the system through the new interface, the IP address and host name for each new interface must be entered into the namespace on the network name server. For information about setting up a network name service, consult:
The ce device driver for each of the system's on-board Sun Gigabit Ethernet interfaces is automatically configured during Solaris installation. For information about operating characteristics and configuration parameters for these drivers, refer to the following document:
This document is available on the Solaris on Sun Hardware AnswerBook, which is provided on the Solaris CD or DVD for your specific Solaris release.
| Sun Fire V445 Server Administration Guide | 819-3741-13 |
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Copyright © 2007, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
To Attach a Twisted-Pair Ethernet Cable