The following key feature changes are related to network administration:
Generic datalink names – Oracle Solaris 11 assigns generic names to each datalink on a system by using the net0, net1, netN naming convention. See Chapter 2, Administering Datalink Configuration in Oracle Solaris in Configuring and Managing Network Components in Oracle Solaris 11.3.
Naming and directory services configuration – This configuration is managed through SMF rather than by editing various files within the /etc directory, as in Oracle Solaris 10 and previous releases. See Configuring Naming and Directory Services.
Network administration commands – The following three commands are primarily used to manage persistent network configuration:
dladm command – Manages datalink configuration, both physical and other types of datalinks such as aggregations. The dladm command also replaces the ndd command and driver.conf file for configuring certain network properties and parameters (tunables).
ipadm command – Creates persistent configuration of IP interfaces and addresses. This command effectively replaces the ifconfig command for IP configuration. See the ifconfig(5) man page. The ipadm command also replaces the ndd command for configuring certain network properties and parameters (tunables). See Chapter 5, Internet Protocol Suite Tunable Parameters in Oracle Solaris 11.3 Tunable Parameters Reference Manual.
route command – Configures persistent routes. This command replaces the /etc/defaultrouter file for managing a system route configuration. The /etc/defautrouter command is deprecated in Oracle Solaris 11.
Network security features – Oracle Solaris provides several new security features, as well as enhancements to several existing security features. See Network Security Features.
Network virtualization features – Oracle Solaris 11 provides several network virtualization features that you can use to promote high availability, manage network resources, and improve overall network performance. Some of these features include aggregations, bridging technologies, virtual local area networks (VLANs), virtual network interface cards (VNICs), and the Elastic Virtual Switch (EVS) feature. See Network Virtualization and Advanced Networking Features.