Configuring IPMP Groups With a Single Physical Interface

When you have only one interface in an IPMP group, failover is not possible. However, you can enable failure detection on that interface by assigning the interface to an IPMP group. You do not have to configure a dedicated test IP address to establish failure detection for a single interface IPMP group. You can use a single IP address for sending data and detecting failure.

How to Configure a Single Interface IPMP Group

1. On the system with the prospective single interface IPMP group, assume the Primary Administrator role or become superuser.

   The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

2. For IPv4, create the single interface IPMP group.

   Use the following syntax to assign the single interface to an IPMP group.

   # ifconfig interface group group-name

   The following example assigns the interface hme0 into the IPMP group v4test:

   # ifconfig hme0 group v4test

   After this step is performed, IPMP enables link-based failure detection on the interface.

   In addition, you can also use the -failover subcommand of the ifconfig command to enable probe-based failure detection. The following example enables probe-based failure detection on hme0 by using the IP address currently assigned to hme0:

   # ifconfig hme0 -failover

   Note that unlike multiple-interface groups, the same IP address can act as both a data address and a test address. To enable applications to use the test address as a data address, test addresses must never be marked deprecated on single-interface IPMP groups.

3. For IPv6, create the single interface IPMP group.

   Use the following syntax to assign a single interface to an IPMP group:

   # ifconfig interface inet6 group group-name

   For example, to add the single interface hme0 into the IPMP group v6test, type the following:

   # ifconfig hme0 inet6 group v6test

   After this step is performed, IPMP enables link-based failure detection on the interface.

   In addition, you can also use the -failover subcommand of the ifconfig command to enable probe-based failure detection. The following example enables probe-based failure detection on hme0 by using the IP address currently assigned to hme0:

   # ifconfig hme0 inet6 -failover

   Note that unlike multiple-interface groups, the same IP address can act as both a data address and a test address. To enable applications to use the test address as a data address, test addresses must never be marked deprecated on single-interface IPMP groups.

   In a single physical interface configuration, you cannot verify whether the target system that is being probed has failed or whether the interface has failed. The target system can be probed through only one physical interface. If only one default router is on the subnet, turn off IPMP if a single physical interface is in the group. If a separate IPv4 and IPv6 default router exists, or multiple default routers exist, more than one target system needs to be probed. Hence, you can safely turn on IPMP.