test

IP Network Multipathing Administration Guide

Replacing a Physical Interface That Has Failed, or DR-detaching or DR-attaching a Physical Interface

The steps in this section pertain to only IP layers that are configured by using ifconfig(1M). Layers before or after the IP layer, such as ATM or other services, require specific manual steps if the layers are not automated. The specific steps are used to unconfigure during pre-detach and configure after post-attach. See the layers and applications documentation for instructions on how to handle the failure and DR scenarios.

You must do the following manual steps before replacing a physical interface that has failed. The following procedures use physical interfaces hme0 and hme1 as example interfaces. The procedures assume that both interfaces are in a multipathing group and that hme0 has failed. The procedures also assume that the logical interface hme0:1 has the test address.

Note –

These procedures assume that you are replacing the failed interface with the same physical interface name, for example, hme0 with hme0.

How to Remove a Physical Interface That Has Failed

Note –

You can skip step 1 if the test address is plumbed by using the /etc/hostname.hme0 file.

  1. Retrieve the test address configuration by typing the following command.


    # ifconfig hme0:1

hme0:1:
flags=9040842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DEPRECATED,IPv4,NOFAILOVER>
mtu 1500 index 3
inet 129.146.233.250 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 129.146.233.255

    You need this information to replumb the test address when replacing the physical interface.

    See Using the hostname File to Configure Groups and Test Addresses for details on how to configure test addresses by using the hostname file.

  2. Refer to the cfgadm(1M) man page, Sun Enterprise 6x00, 5x00, 4x00, and 3x00 Systems Dynamic Reconfiguration User's Guide, or Sun Enterprise 10000 DR Configuration Guide for a description of how to remove the physical interface.

How to Replace a Physical Interface That Has Failed

  1. Refer to the cfgadm(1M) man page, Sun Enterprise 6x00, 5x00, 4x00, and 3x00 Systems Dynamic Reconfiguration User's Guide, or Sun Enterprise 10000 DR Configuration Guide, or Sun Fire 880 Dynamic Reconfiguration User's Guide for a description of how to replace the physical interface.

  2. Plumb in and bring up the test address by typing the following command.


    # ifconfig hme0 <test address configuration>
    Note –

    The test address configuration is the same test address that was configured in the /etc/hostname.hme0 file. Using the previous procedure, the test configuration is the same configuration that is displayed in step 1.

    This configuration triggers the in.mpathd daemon to resume probing. As a result of this probing, in.mpathd detects the repair. Consequently, in.mpathd causes the original IP address to fail back from hme1.

    See Configuring Test Addresses for more details about how to configure test addresses.

    Note –

    The failback of IP addresses during the recovery of a failed physical interface requires as much as three minutes. This time might vary. The time depends on network traffic. The time also depends on the determination of the stability of the incoming interface to failback failed over interfaces by the in.mpathd daemon.