Sun Fire 12K Server
 
Sun Fire 15K Server
 
Sun Fire E25K Server
 
Sun Fire E20K Server
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>SPARC>Enterprise>SN-SPARC: SF-Exxk
 

Applies to:

Purpose

As mentioned in document 1018896.1 (Sun Fire[TM] 12K/15K/E20K/E25K: Management Networks (MAN)) the Sun Fire[TM]
12K/15K/E20K/E25K platform has three distinct Networks which together make up the Management Network (MAN). The
three Networks are called the I1 Network, the I2 Network, and the C Network (Community Network).

This document provides some additional information about the C Network which consists of two network interfaces providing
IP connectivity to the System Controller (SC) allowing to manage and administer the platform. One network interface is
located on the SC CPU Board and a second one is located on the SC Board. A typical IP Multipathing (IPMP) High Availability
(HA) configuration for the SCs in the C Network will be outlined as well.

Details

C Network interfaces on the SC
The C Network (public network) comprises two network interfaces on each SC (Main and Spare) whereas one interface is
located on the SC CPU Board and the other one is located on the SC Board. The C Network interfaces are...

eri interfaces on the SC Board do not have a MAC address associated. In order to be able to establish IPMP in the C
Network the appropriate eri interface from the SC Board (eri1 with Nordica or eri3 with Othello+) will be assigned the
MAC address from the second interface on the SC CPU Board. So in 'prtconf' you would see two consecutive MACs from the
SC CPU Board while the second MAC is also used for one interface on the SC Board...

Please note that this duplicate MAC is not within the same network.


IP Multipathing (IPMP) - A typical HA configuration for the SCs in the C Network
For general information about IPMP Configurations please refer to document 1010640.1 (Summary of Typical Solaris IP
Multipathing (IPMP) Configurations).

The C Network interface set on each SC can be built on top of Solaris' IP Multipathing (IPMP) to provide High Availability
(HA) network connectivity to the SCs. HA configuration here means grouping the two C Network interfaces on each SC. Such
IPMP HA configuration on the SCs adds an extra layer of redundancy in the C Network and may help to avoid SC failovers
from happening as a result of a switch or hub failure, or bad ethernet cable.

The following example shows the network interfaces on an Main SC with an Nordica SC CPU Board

scman0 and scman1 are the interfaces on the System Controller belonging to the I1 Network and the I2 Network. For more
insights please refer to 1018896.1.

hme0 and eri1 are the C Network physical interfaces configured into IPMP groupname C1. Each of these interfaces has its
IP address assigned which is the IPMP test address and used by IPMP to check the health of the interface. Test addresses
are marked with the NOFAILOVER Flag. The DEPRECATED Flag prevents daemons/applications from binding directly to the
physical interface. This is required as a binding to the physical interface would cause the daemon/application to hang
if an interface failure happens even if IPMP would failover to another interface in the group.

hme0:1 is the logical interface with the IPMP failover address. In this context which discusses an SC the first logical
interface (:1) is generally the IPMP failover interface. See now the relevant files hostname.* that determine the
configuration of hme0, hme0:1 and eri1

The statement 'addif' creates the logical interface with the IPMP failover address.

hme0:2 is the second logical interface (:2) and has the SC failover address assigned. It is used to provide IP connectivity
to the Main SC in the C Network, either SC0 or SC1. The SC failover address is only present on the Main SC and will move to
the other SC upon an SC Failover. So the preferred SC connection via this SC failover address ensures that you will be
connected to the actual Main SC. The SC failover address is assigned according to the MAN.cf file

References

This solution has no attachment