Recovering an IPMP Configuration With Dynamic Reconfiguration

This section contains procedures that relate to administering systems that support dynamic reconfiguration (DR).

How to Replace a Physical Card That Has Failed

This procedure explains how to replace a physical card on a system that supports DR. The procedure assumes the following conditions:

• Your system's active NCP is DefaultFixed. Refer to the section Dynamic Reconfiguration and Network Configuration Profiles in How NWAM Works With Other Oracle Solaris Networking Technologies for information about using DR if your system's active NCP is not DefaultFixed.

• The system's IP interfaces are net0 and net1.

• Both interfaces belong to the IPMP group, itops0.

• The underlying interface net0 contains a test address.

• The underlying interface net0 has failed, and you need to remove net0's card, bge.

• You are replacing the bge card with a e1000g card.

Before You Begin

The procedures for performing DR vary with the type of system. Therefore, make sure that you complete the following:

• Ensure that your system supports DR.

• Consult the appropriate manual that describes DR procedures on your system. For Sun hardware from Oracle, all systems that support DR are servers. To locate current DR documentation on Sun systems, search for “dynamic reconfiguration” on http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html.

  ---

  Note - The steps in the following procedure refer only to aspects of DR that are specifically related to IPMP and the use of link names. The procedure does not contain the complete steps to perform DR. For example, some layers beyond the IP layer require manual configuration steps, such as for ATM and other services, if the configuration is not automated. Follow the appropriate DR documentation for your system.

  For the detailed procedure to replace NICs, refer to How to Replace a Network Interface Card With Dynamic Reconfiguration.

  ---

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Obtain Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris Administration: Security Services.

2. Perform the appropriate DR steps to remove the failed NIC from the system.

   For example, you would remove the bge card.

3. Attach the replacement NIC to the system.

   For example, you would install the e1000g card on the same location that the bge card used to occupy. The e1000g's datalink assumes the name net0 and inherits that datalink's configuration.

4. Complete the DR process by enabling the new NIC's resources to become available for use.

   For example, you use the cfgadm command to perform this step. For more information, see the cfgadm(1M) man page.

   After this step, the new interface is configured with the test address, added as an underlying interface of the IPMP group, and deployed either as an active or a standby interface, all depending on the persistent configurations of net0. The kernel can then allocate data addresses to this new interface according to the persistent configurations of the IPMP interface, itops0.