Document for MultiNICB support with Link-Based IPMP on Solaris10

Details:

Solaris IPMP is known as IP Multipathing controlled by Solaris MPATHD daemon.

 

In Solaris 10, there are three different  modes of IPMP available. Please refer to  the relevant Oracle (SUN) System Administration Guide for IP Services for detail.
 

 

1. Probe-based IPMP with active-active setup (IPMP-P-AA).
 

2. Probe-Based IPMP with active-standby setup (IPMP-P-AS) also known as active-passive.
 

3. Link-based IPMP with active-standby setup (IPMP-L-AS).
 

The Probe-Based IPMP requires to have Test IP Addresses configured for usage by Solaris in.mpathd daemon, and the VCS MultiNICB configuration for this mode is described in VCS Bundled Agents Guide with sample configuration.

The Solaris 10 Link-Based IPMP does not require to have Test IP Addresses, and a preferred configuration in some cases in order to conserve IP Addresses. Following procedure will serve as a document to configure VCS MultiNICB with Solaris 10 Link-Based IPMP.

 

Since the VCS default value of ConfigCheck attribute for MultiNICB with Solaris mpathd mode  is 1, this enables the MultiNICB agent to verify the following:
 

All specified physical interfaces are in the same IP subnet and group, and have "DEPRECATED" and "NOFAILOVER" flags set on them. No other physical interface has the same subnet as the specified interfaces.
 

 

Since there is no Test IP Address is being used in Solaris 10 Link-Based IPMP Active-Standby mode, it is recommended to set the value of ConfigCheck attribute for MultiNICB to 0 in order to comply and be compatible.
 

 

Sample VCS MultiNICB Configuration for Solaris 10 Link-Based IPMP:
 

 

$ cat /etc/hostname.fjgi0
 

whpsedwdb2 netmask + broadcast + group ipmp0 up
 

 

$ cat /etc/hostname.fjgi1
 

group ipmp0 standby up
 

 

cat /etc/VRTSvcs/conf/config/main.cf
 

 

      MultiNICB mnicb (
 

              Critical = 0
 

              UseMpathd = 1
 

              MpathdCommand = "/usr/lib/inet/in.mpathd"
 

              Device = { fjgi0, fjgi1 }
 

              ConfigCheck = 0
 

  GroupName = ipmp0
 

              )
 

 

 

Warning:
 

Please note that the Solaris IPMP group name value is always over-written by VCS MultiNICB resource name unless a GroupName attribute for MultiNICB is specified with the desired or required value to match with the Solaris IPMP group name. Please refer to the article at https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000026265 for details.

Please refer to VCS Bundled Agent Guide for detail on MultiNICB and IPMultiNICB configuration.