2.8.3 Switch MAC Address Cache and Ping Feature

In a certain deployments where all traffic passes through the IPFE, no Ethernet packets go directly to the DA-MP from the gateway (or remote peer, for the case that a remote peer is on the local network segment). If there is any connection in which the traffic flows to the DAMP through IPFE (a floating connection) and there are two or more switches in between IPFE and DAMP, this feature must be enabled. Any intermediate Switch would be unaware that the Ethernet jack ("switch port") of the gateway (or peer) is a viable path for packets emitted by the DA-MP. In this case, the Switch would broadcast that packet to all Ethernet switch ports as a last resort. This creates network flooding.

For this situation, even if the switch had knowledge of the aforementioned switch port, this information expires after five minutes on typical switch configurations.

The solution to this problem is to keep the switch tables updated with periodic pings to remote peers or gateways. An ICMP or ARP ping every two minutes, from the DA-MPs, is sufficient.

To run the ping on a particular DA-MP, login as root and type:

/usr/TKLC/dsr/bin/pingAllLivePeers -v

For options, type:

pingAllLivePeers -h

These commands can be used for diagnostics.

Note:

The background operation logs to /var/log/messages and /var/log/cron