Hello everybody,
What we have:
Solaris 9 machines with one network interface configured on each. OBP variable local-mac-address is different on different machines. Each server have few unused NIC's.
Is it possible to dynamically configure IPMP without disrupting IP traffic? Or may be there is another ways to switch IP address between NIC's?
you cannot configure IPMP without disrupting the network link.
But -- you could in theory simply run the ifconfig cmd with appropriate switches from a console session and configure ipmp (you'd have to edit the hostname.interface files to make this permanent). This way you'd have a hiccup in service but theoritically, you could quickly swing into IPMP mode (this is strictly my humble opinion though)...
If however, your local-mac-address? is set to false, you'd have to reboot to turn it on anyway. IPMP requires each interface to have an unique MAC. You'd be best adviced to set up your /etc/hostname.<ifname> files to set up IPMP, eeprom local-mac-address?=true and reboot.
[[[It is possible to change mac address using 'ifconfig <if> ether <addr>' command]]]
Hmm...wonder which version of solaris you're working on.
I looked at the ifconfig man page (just to be sure) -- and I don't see the option you mentioned. In anycase, I don't think it's possible to "change" the mac address of a NIC to just anything. The MAC is a hard-coded "UNIQUE" address and Sun has a way of hiding mac addresses of individual NICs on SPARC systems.
As a result, to turn on IPMP, one would have to ensure that local-mac-address? is set to true (and if changing it for the first time -- reboot).
> It is possible to change mac address using 'ifconfig
> <if> ether <addr>' command. So, it looks like IPMP
> can be set up without rebooting. I have to test this
> procedure, thank you.
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-5166/6mbb1kq3c?a=view
ether [ address ]
If no address is given and the user is root or has sufficient privileges to open the underlying device, then display the current Ethernet address information.
Otherwise, if the user is root or has sufficient privileges, set the Ethernet address of the interfaces to address. The address is an Ethernet address represented as x:x:x:x:x:x where x is a hexadecimal number between 0 and FF. Similarly, for the IPoIB (IP over InfiniBand) interfaces, the address will be 20 bytes of colon-separated hex numbers between 0 and FF.
Some, though not all, Ethernet interface cards have their own addresses. To use cards that do not have their own addresses, refer to section 3.2.3(4) of the IEEE 802.3 specification for a definition of the locally administered address space. The use of multipathing groups should be restricted to those cards with their own addresses (see MULTIPATHING GROUPS).
MULTIPATHING GROUPS
Physical interfaces that share the same IP broadcast domain can be collected into a multipathing group using the group keyword. Interfaces assigned to the same multipathing group are treated as equivalent and outgoing traffic is spread across the interfaces on a per-IP-destination basis. In addition, individual interfaces in a multipathing group are monitored for failures; the addresses associated with failed interfaces are automatically transferred to other functioning interfaces within the group.
Whaddya know! Those tinkerers at IEEE go and flip everything upside down!
And I used to think all ethernet adapters must have unique MACs (of course that would greatly limit the number of possible computers that can be networked via Ethernet to a finite (although large) number)...
Thanks -- that was informational.
> And I used to think all ethernet adapters must have
> unique MACs (of course that would greatly limit the
> number of possible computers that can be networked
> via Ethernet to a finite (although large) number)...
Agreed. Once upon a time MACs were always unique, and you could break out who made the card by the MAC address.
No more.
For indepth information (including your "large" number above):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
