Configuring Network Datalinks
Network datalinks manage devices, and are used by interfaces. They support:
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Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) -
LACP is used to bundle multiple network devices such that they behave as one.
This improves performance (by increasing bandwidth) and reliability (by
protecting from network port failure); however, the appliance must be connected
to a switch that supports LACP and has it enabled for those ports.
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InfiniBand (IB) Partitions - InfiniBand
partitions connect to logically isolated IB fabric domains.
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Virtual LANs (VLANs) - VLANs are used to
improve local network security and isolation. VLANs are recommended for
administering the appliance; otherwise, use VNICs.
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Virtual Network Interface Cards (VNICs) -
VNICs allow single or aggregated Ethernet datalinks to be split into multiple
virtual (Ethernet) datalinks. VNICs can be optionally tagged with VLAN IDs, and
can allow physical network port sharing in a cluster. Step-by-step instructions
can be found in Clustering Considerations for Networking below.
Note -
VNIC-based and VLAN-based datalinks cannot share the same VLAN ID.
The IEEE802.3ad (link aggregation) standard does not explicitly support
aggregations across multiple switches, but some vendors provide multi-switch support
via proprietary extensions. If a switch configured with those extensions conforms to
the IEEE standard and the extensions are transparent to the end-nodes, its use is
supported with the appliance. If an issue is encountered, Oracle support may require
it to be reproduced on a single-switch configuration.
The following datalink settings are available:
Table 17 Datalink Settings
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Name
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Use the defined custom name. For example: "internal", "external",
"adminnet", etc.
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Speed
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Use the defined speed. Valid values are auto, 10, 100, 1000 and
10000, representing autonegotiation, forced 10Mbit/sec, forced
100Mbit/sec, forced 1Gbit/sec and forced 10Gbit/sec. Speed and
duplex must be either both forced to specific values or both set to
autonegotiate. Not all networking devices support forcing to all
possible speed/duplex combinations. Disabling autonegotiation is
strongly discouraged. However, if the switch has autonegotiation
disabled, it may be necessary to force speed (and duplex) to ensure
the datalink runs at the expected speed and duplex.
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Duplex
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Use the defined transmission direction. Valid CLI values are auto,
half, and full, representing autonegotiation, half- and full-duplex
respectively. Speed and duplex must be either both forced to
specific values or both set to autonegotiate.
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VLAN
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Use VLAN headers.
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VLAN ID
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Use the defined VLAN identifier; optional for VNICs.
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VNIC
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Use a VNIC.
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MTU
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Use the defined maximum transmission unit (MTU) size. The default
MTU is 1500 bytes. Specify a lower MTU (minimum 1280) to leave
packet headroom (for example, for tunneling protocols). Specify a
larger MTU (maximum 9000) to improve network performance. All
systems and switches on the same LAN must be configured with the
chosen MTU. After the MTU value is set and the new network
configuration is committed to the system, you can return to the
network screen and view the datalink status to see the exact MTU
value in bytes that was selected. Note that a VLAN or VNIC cannot be
configured with an MTU value larger than that of the underlying
datalink.
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LACP Aggregation
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Use multiple network device LACP aggregation.
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LACP Policy
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Use the defined LACP policy for selecting an outbound port. L2
hashes the source and destination MAC address; L3 uses the source
and destination IP address; L4 uses the source and destination
transport level port
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LACP Mode
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Use the defined LACP communication mode. Active mode will send and
receive LACP messages to negotiate connections and monitor the link
status. Passive mode will listen for LACP messages only. Off mode
will use the aggregated link but not detect link failure or switch
configuration changes. Some network switch configurations, including
Cisco Etherchannel, do not use the LACP protocol: the LACP mode
should be set to "off" when using non-LACP aggregation in your
network.
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LACP Timer
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Use the defined interval between LACP messages for Active
mode.
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IB Partition
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Use IB Partitions.
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Partition Key
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Use the partition (fabric domain) in which the underlying port
device is a member. The partition key (pkey) is found on and
configured by the subnet manager. The pkey may be defined before
configuring the subnet manager but the datalink will remain "down"
until the subnet partition has been properly configured with the
port GUID as a member. It is important to keep partition membership
for HCA ports consistent with IPMP Configuration and Appliance Cluster Configuration rules on the subnet
manager.
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IB Link Mode
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Use the defined IB Link Mode. IPoIB
provides two link modes: Connected (the default) and Unreliable
Datagram. Connected mode provides higher throughput and is
recommended over Unreliable Datagram. Use Unreliable Datagram only
if technically required. Connected mode uses IB queue pairs and
dedicates a local queue pair to communicate with a dedicated remote
queue pair. Connected mode uses an MTU of 65520 and provides higher
throughput than Unreliable Datagram. Unreliable Datagram lets a
local queue pair communicate with multiple other queue pairs on any
host and messages are communicated unacknowledged at the IB layer.
Unreliable Datagram mode uses an MTU of 2044 and yields a lower
throughput rate.
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