Chapter 23 IP Network Multipathing

IP network multipathing been enhanced in the Solaris 8 4/01 release. The following information supplements information on IP network multipathing that is in the IP Network Multipathing Administration Guide.

For the most current man pages, use the man command. The Solaris 8 Update release man pages include new feature information that is not in the Solaris 8 Reference Manual Collection.

Detaching Network Adapters

IP network multipathing provides your system with recovery from single-point failures with network adapters and increased traffic throughput. If a failure occurs in the network adapter, and if you have an alternate adapter connected to the same IP link, the system switches all the network accesses automatically from the failed adapter to the alternate adapter. This process ensures uninterrupted access to the network. Also, when you have multiple network adapters connected to the same IP link, you achieve increased traffic throughput by spreading the traffic across multiple network adapters.

In the Solaris 8 4/01 release, dynamic reconfiguration (DR) uses IP Network Multipathing to decommission a specific network device without impacting existing IP users.

For information about dynamic reconfiguration and IP Network Multipathing, see “Detaching Network Adapters” in the IP Network Multipathing Administration Guide. Chapter 2 describes relevant procedures.