Invoking and Configuring IPFC

Immediately upon installation, start IPFC manually with the ifconfig command. You can configure the host so that on subsequent reboot, the IPFC network interface starts automatically. This section describes the procedures to start a network interface manually and to configure the host for automatic plumbing upon reboot.

How to Start a Network Interface Manually

Use this procedure when you want to plumb IPFC with specific netmask values and get the IPFC interface up and running.

1. Become superuser.
2. Configure the appropriate network interface.

   Ask your network administrator for an appropriate IP address and netmask information. For example, to enable an IPFC interface associated with fp instance 0 and an IP address of 192.9.201.10, type:

   # touch /etc/notrouter
   # ifconfig fcip0 inet 192.9.201.10 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

   For more information, see ifconfig(1M).

3. Confirm that the network is operational.

   # ifconfig -a
   lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
   inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
   fcip0: flags=1001843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,MULTI_BCAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
   inet 192.9.201.10 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.9.201.255 ether 0:e0:8b:1:3c:f7
   hme0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 3
   inet 192.9.200.70 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.9.200.255
   ether 8:0:20:fc:e9:49

How to Configure the Host for Automatic Network Configuration

Each network interface must have an /etc/hostname.interface file defining the name of the IP address associated with it. For example, IPFC network interface fcip0 has a file named /etc/hostname.fcip0.

1. Manually create a /etc/hostname.interface file that contains a single line that identifies the host name or interface IP address.
2. Make any additional entries to the /etc/inet/hosts file.

   The Oracle Solaris OS installation program creates the /etc/inet/hosts file with minimum entries. You must manually make additional entries with a text editor. For additional information see hosts(4).

   The /etc/inet/hosts file contains the hosts database. This file contains the host names and the primary network interface IP addresses, as well as the IP addresses of other network interfaces attached to the system and of any other network interfaces that the machine must know about.

   The following example shows an etc/inet/host file.

   127.0.0.1      localhost     loghost
   192.9.200.70   sun1     #This is the local host name
   192.9.201.10 fcip0 #Interface to network 192.9.201.10

3. Edit the /etc/nsswitch.conf file so that all uncommented entries have the word files before any other name service.

   The /etc/nsswitch.conf specifies which name service to use for a particular machine. The following code shows an example of an /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

   hosts: files nis