Oracle Solaris 11 Networking Overview

The Oracle Solaris 11 OS introduced many new networking features, which are described in the Oracle Solaris 11 networking documentation at Oracle Solaris 11 Documentation.

The following Oracle Solaris 11 networking features are important to understand when you use the Oracle VM Server for SPARC software:

• All network configuration is performed by the ipadm and dladm commands.

• The “vanity name by default” feature generates generic link names, such as net0, for all physical network adapters. This feature also generates generic names for virtual switches (vswn) and virtual network devices (vnetn), which appear like physical network adapters to the OS. To identify the generic link name that is associated with a physical network device, use the dladm show-phys command.

  By default in Oracle Solaris 11, physical network device names use generic “vanity” names. Generic names, such as net0, are used instead of device driver names, such as nxge0, which were used in Oracle Solaris 10.

  To determine which network device to use as the back-end device for the virtual switch, search for vsw in the dladm show-phys output.

  The following command creates a virtual switch for the primary domain by specifying the generic name, net0, instead of a driver name, such as nxge0:

  primary# ldm add-vsw net-dev=net0 primary-vsw0 primary

• The Oracle Solaris 11 OS uses virtual network interface cards (VNICs) to create internal virtual networks.

  A VNIC is a virtual instantiation of a physical network device that can be created from the physical network device and assigned to a zone.

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  Note - The creation of VNICs on virtual switches (vswn) or virtual network devices (vnetn) are not supported. See Oracle Solaris 11: Zones Configured With an Automatic Network Interface Might Fail to Start in Oracle VM Server for SPARC 2.2 Release Notes.

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• Use the Oracle Solaris 11 DefaultFixed network configuration profile (NCP) when configuring the Oracle VM Server for SPARC software.

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  Note - In this release, it is best use the DefaultFixed NCP to configure datalinks and network interfaces on Oracle Solaris 11 systems.

  The Oracle Solaris 11 OS includes the following NCPs:

  • DefaultFixed. Enables you to use the dladm or ipadm command to manage networking.

  • Automatic. Enables you to use the netcfg or netadm command to manage networking.

  Ensure that the DefaultFixed NCP is enabled by using the netadm list command. See Chapter 7, Using Datalink and Interface Configuration Commands on Profiles, in Oracle Solaris Administration: Network Interfaces and Network Virtualization.

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  For Oracle Solaris 11 domains, use the DefaultFixed NCP. You can enable this profile during or after installation. During an Oracle Solaris 11 installation, select the Manual networking configuration.

• Do not replace the primary network interface with the virtual switch (vsw) interface. The control domain can use the existing primary network interface to communicate with the guest domains that have virtual network devices connected to the same virtual switch.

• Do not use the physical network adapter's MAC address for the virtual switch because using the physical adapter's MAC address for the virtual switch conflicts with the primary network interface.

The following diagram shows that a guest domain that runs the Oracle Solaris 10 OS is fully compatible with an Oracle Solaris 11 service domain. The only differences are features added or enhanced in the Oracle Solaris 11 OS.

Figure 8-2 Oracle VM Server for SPARC Network Overview for the Oracle Solaris 11 OS

Following is an explanation for the previous diagram, which shows that network device names, such as nxge0 and vnet0, can be represented by generic link names, such as netn in Oracle Solaris 11 domains.

• The virtual switch in the service domain is connected to the guest domains. This enables guest domains to communicate with each other.

• The virtual switch is also connected to the physical network device nxge0. This enables guest domains to communicate with the physical network.

  The virtual switch also enables guest domains to communicate with the service domain network interface net0 and with VNICs on the same physical network device as nxge0. Therefore, you do not need to configure vsw as a network interface in an Oracle Solaris 11 service domain because of the networking enhancements in the Oracle Solaris 11 MAC layer.

• The virtual network device vnet0 in an Oracle Solaris 10 guest domain can be configured as a network interface by using the ifconfig command.

• The virtual network device vnet0 in an Oracle Solaris 11 guest domain might appear with a generic link name, such as net0. It can be configured as a network interface by using the ipadm command.

A virtual switch behaves like a regular physical network switch and switches network packets between the different systems to which it is connected. A system can be a guest domain, a service domain, or a physical network.