System Administration Guide: IP Services

How to Configure a Multipathing Group With One of the Interfaces a Standby Interface

The examples that are used in this procedure assume that hme1 will be configured as the standby interface.

Note - A standby interface has only a test address.

Do steps 1 and 2 in "How to Configure a Multipathing Interface Group With Two Interfaces".

Configure the test address on all physical interfaces by using the following substeps.

For the non-standby interface, such as hme0, do step 3 in "How to Configure a Multipathing Interface Group With Two Interfaces".

For a standby interface, configure a test address by typing the following command.

Note - A standby interface can have only a test address. A standby interface cannot have any other IP address.

# ifconfig interface-name plumb ip-address <other-parameters> deprecated -failover 
standby up

Note - You must set the -failover option before the standby option and the standby option before up.

For <other-parameters>, use the parameters that are required by your configuration. See the ifconfig(1M) man page for descriptions.

For example, to create a test address with the following configuration:

Physical interface hme1 as a standby interface
Address of 19.16.85.22
With deprecated and -failover set
Sets the netmask and broadcast address to the default value

You type the following command:

# ifconfig hme1 plumb 19.16.85.22 netmask + broadcast + deprecated -failover standby up

You can check the results by typing the following:

# ifconfig hme1
flags=69040843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DEPRECATED,IPv4,NOFAILOVER,STANDBY,INACTIVE> 
        mtu 1500 index 4 inet 19.16.85.22 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 19.16.85.255
        groupname test

For IPv6, to create a test address, type the following command:

ifconfig hme1 plumb -failover standby up

The INACTIVE flag indicates that this interface is not used for any outbound packets. When a failover occurs on this standby interface, the INACTIVE flag is cleared.

(Do this step only if you want to preserve the configuration across reboots.) To preserve the configuration across reboots, do the following substeps.
- For IPv4, edit the /etc/hostname.interface file and add the following line.
  interface-address <parameters> group group-name up \ addif logical-interface-failover deprecated <parameters> up
  Note - This test IP address is configured only on the next reboot. If you want the configuration to be invoked in the current session, do steps 1 and 2.
  For example, to create a group test with the following configuration for hme0:
  - Physical interface hme0 with address 19.16.85.19
  - A logical interface address of 19.16.85.21
  - With deprecated and -failover set
  - Sets the netmask and broadcast address to the default value
  You add the following line to the /etc/hostname.hme0 file:
  19.16.85.19 netmask + broadcast + group test up \ addif 19.16.85.21 deprecated -failover netmask + broadcast + up
  Similarly, to place the standby interface hme1 under the same group test and configure a test address, type the following command:
  19.16.85.22 netmask + broadcast + deprecated group test -failover standby up
- For IPv6, edit the /etc/hostname6.interface file and add the following line.
  -failover group group-name up
  Note - This test IP address is configured only on the next reboot. If you want the configuration to be invoked in the current session, do steps 1 and 2.
  For example, to create a test group for hme0 with an IPv6 address, add the following line to the /etc/hostname6.hme0 file:
  -failover group test up
  Similarly, to place the standby interface hme1 under the same group test and configure a test address, add the following line to the /etc/hostname6.hme1 file:
  -failover group test standby up

How to Display the Group to Which a Physical Interface Belongs

Become superuser.

On a command line, type the following command.
# ifconfig interface-name

For example, to display the group name for hme0, you type the following command:

# ifconfig hme0
	hme0: flags=9000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 
      index 2 inet 19.16.85.19 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 19.16.85.255
      groupname test

To display the group name for only the IPv6 instance, you type the following command:

# ifconfig hme0 inet6
	hme0: flags=a000841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2
        	inet6 fe80::a00:20ff:feb9:19fa/10 
        	groupname test

How to Add an Interface To a Group

Become superuser.

On a command line, type the following command.
# ifconfig interface-name group group-name

For example, to add hme0 to the group test, you type the following command:

# ifconfig hme0 group test

How to Remove an Interface From a Group

Become superuser.

On a command line, type the following command.
# ifconfig interface-name group ""
The quotation marks indicate a null string.

For example, to remove hme0 from the group test, you type the following command:

# ifconfig hme0 group ""
	# ifconfig hme0
	hme0: flags=9000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500
        	index 2 inet 19.16.85.19 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 19.16.85.255
	# ifconfig hme0 inet6
	hme0: flags=a000841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2
        	inet6 fe80::a00:20ff:feb9:19fa/10

"Removing Network Adapters From Multipathing Groups" provides additional information.


28. Administering Network Multipathing (Task) Configuring Multipathing Interface Groups How to Configure a Multipathing Interface Group With Two Interfaces