Configuring Network Adapters for Redundancy

Audience: System Administrators

Date: October 15, 2001
You can protect against network adapter failure using AIX's Etherchannel support.
Etherchannel allows you to create a "logical" ethernet adapter out of 2 physical adapters.
If the primary network adapter fails, AIX seemlessly moves network traffic to the
surviving adapter using the same IP address.
The Etherchannel function is available in AIX 4.3.3+. Documentation is scarce, so here's
a quick "how to". In this example, we assume we have two physical adapters (ent1 and
ent2) that we want to group as a logical interface:
smit => devices => communications => etherchannel =>"Add an Etherchannel"
(fastpath "smit etherchannel")

Add An Etherchannel

Type or select values in entry fields.

Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

[Entry Fields]
Etherchannel Adapters ent1 ent2
Enable ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL address no
ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL address []
Mode netif_backup
Internet Address to Ping []
Number of Retries []
Retry Timeout (sec) []
This will create a "logical" interface using the next available adapter name ("ent3"). From
here, configure an IP address on the logical interface ent3.

Comments:
ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL = yes allows you to specify a "MAC" address. (Not
necessary)
Mode = round-robin provides higher aggregate bandwidth by distributing outgoing
packets over multiple network adapters. However "round-robin" does not distribute
incoming packets, nor does it provide adapter failover. Use "netif_backup" if you want
failover.
Internet Address to Ping: IP address for "keep alive". Optional as most failures detected
at link layer
Bruce Spencer,
baspence@us.ibm.com
EtherChannel Readme File
Etherchannel
Introduction
Etherchannel is an aggregation technology that allows you to produce a single
large pipe by combining the bandwidth of multiple ethernet adapters. The
aggregated pipe appears to be single ethernet interface to the upper layers (IP,
etc.). Each of the ethernet adapters will share a single MAC address. There is a
single ethernet interface associated with the aggregated pipe, which has a single
IP address as well.
Hardware
The ethernet adapters inside which are members of the etherchannel can be any
supported ethernet adapter. The ethernet adapters must be connected to a switch
which supports Etherchannel
.
Configuration
In AIX 4.3.3, a single etherchannel can combine either two or four ethernet
adapters in the channel.

You can configure multiple etherchannels on a single system. Be aware that each
etherchannel constitutes an additional ethernet interface. The "no" option, ifsize (default
8), needs to be increased to include not only the ethernet interfaces for each adapter, but
also any etherchannels that are configured. See the "no" command documentation in
regards to modifying ifsize.
The adapters in an etherchannel need to be configured to the same speed (10 or 100
Mbps) and mode (half or full duplex).

I.Configuring Etherchannel

Etherchannel is configured through smit. I will use the following setup to show
how etherchannel is configured: there will be 2 ethernet adapters, ent0 and ent1,
in the etherchannel and there is no etherchannel alternate address specifed. There
are 5 ethernet adapters to choose from.
Execute:
# smitty etherchannel
which produces a screen that looks like:

Etherchannel

Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

 List All Etherchannels
Add An Etherchannel
Change / Show Characteristics of an Etherchannel
Remove An Etherchannel

Then choose "Add An Etherchannel" selection:

Etherchannel

Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

List All Etherchannels

Add An Etherchannel
Change / Show Characteristics of an Etherchannel
Delete An Etherchannel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Available Network Adapters |
| |
| Move cursor to desired item and press F7. |
| ONE OR MORE items can be selected. |
| Press Enter AFTER making all selections. |
| |
| > ent0 |
| > ent1 |
| ent2 |
| ent3 |
| ent4 |
| |
| F1=Help F2=Refresh F3=Cancel |
| F7=Select F8=Image F10=Exit |
F1| Enter=Do /=Find n=Find Next |
F9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As instructed, select one more more of the listed adapters.

The "Available Network Adapters" displays all of the ethernet
adapters. If one selects an ethernet adapter that is already being
used (i.e. has an interface defined), then one will get an error similar
to:
NOTE Method error (/usr/lib/methods/cfgech):
0514-001 System error:
Method error (/usr/lib/methods/chgent):
0514-062 Cannot perform the requested function
because the
specified device is busy.

Add an Etherchannel

Type or select values in entry fields.

Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

[Entry Fields]
Etherchannel Adapters ent0 ent1 +
Enable ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL address no +
ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL address [] +
Mode standard +
 Enable GIGABIT ETHERNET JUMBO frames no +
Internet Address to Ping []
Number of Retries [] #
Retry Timeout (sec) [] #

After hitting the enter key:

COMMAND STATUS

Command: OK stdout: yes stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

ent5 Available
Since an alternate address was not specified, the config method for
the etherchannel changed the alternate address of ent1 to the
NOTE
hardware address of ent0. If an alternate address was specified,
both ent0 and ent1 would have that alternate address.
Then add an interface, en5 for standard ethernet or et5 for IEEE 802.3, through
the normal means. The easiest way is to use the "Minimum Configuration &
Startup" TCP/IP smit menu.
II.Listing Etherchannels

Execute:
# smitty etherchannel
and choose the "List All Etherchannels" selection:

Etherchannel

Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

List All Etherchannels

Add An Etherchannel
Change / Show Characteristics of an Etherchannel
Remove An Etherchannel

COMMAND STATUS

Command: OK stdout: yes stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

ent5 Available Etherchannel

III.Changing the alternate address

Execute:
# smitty etherchannel
Then choose "Change / Show Characteristics of an Etherchannel" selection:

Etherchannel

Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

List All Etherchannels

Add An Etherchannel
Change / Show Characteristics of an Etherchannel
Remove An Etherchannel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Available Etherchannels |
| |
| Move cursor to desired item and press Enter. |
| |
| ent5 |
| |
| F1=Help F2=Refresh F3=Cancel |
| F8=Image F10=Exit Enter=Do |
F1| /=Find n=Find Next |
F9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To change the Alternate etherchannel address to 1234deadbeef:

Change / Show Characteristics of an Etherchannel

Type or select values in entry fields.

Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

[Entry Fields]
Etherchannel ent5 +
Enable ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL address yes +
ALTERNATE ETHERCHANNEL address [0x1234deadbeef] +

After hitting the enter key:

COMMAND STATUS

Command: OK stdout: yes stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

ent5 changed
 If one wants to add or delete an ethernet adapter from the
etherchannel, one must use the "Remove an Etherchannel" smit
NOTE
menu selection, then re-add the etherchannel with the "Add An
Etherchannel" smit menu selection.
Unconfiguring the Etherchannel
Execute:
# smitty etherchannel
Then choose "Remove an Etherchannel" selection:

Etherchannel

Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

Choose 'ent5', then hit the enter key:

COMMAND STATUS

Command: OK stdout: yes stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

ent5 deleted

ent0 changed
ent1 changed
Troubleshooting
tcpdump and trace can be used to troubleshoot the etherchannel. The trace hook id
for the transmit packets is 2FA and for other events is 2FB. You cannot trace
receive packets on the channel as a whole, but you can trace each of the adapter's
receive trace hooks.

The entstat command will give the aggregate statistics of all the adapters in an
etherchannel. If entstat is run with the "-d" option, the statistics of each of the
individual adapters is printed.
Restrictions
Remote dump is not supported over an etherchannel.
IV.Modes

There are three modes for Etherchannel. Each control the method the channel
uses to send and receive packets.
 Standard
In this mode the channel will hash on the destination IP address and use this value
to choose which adapter it will send the packet out on. This mode will guarantee
packets are sent out over the channel in the order they were sent, but may not
make full use of the bandwidth.
Round Robin
In this mode the channel will rotate through the adapters, giving each adapter one
packet before repeating. In this mode packets may be sent out in a slightly
different order than they were given to the channel, but the channel will make the
best use of its bandwidth.
Network Interface Backup
In this mode, the channel will only activate one adapter at a time. The intention is
that the adapters are plugged into different ethernet switches, each of which is
capable of getting to any other machine on the subnet/network. When a problem
is detected, either with the direct connection, or through inability to ping a
machine, the channel will deactivate the current adapter, and activate a backup
adapter.
The channel will poll the adapter for Link Status in "Retry Timeout" intervals. If
the Link Status is not up (either due to a cable being unplugged, switch down, or
device driver problem) , the channel will switch to another adapter.
This mode is the only one that makes use of the "Internet Address to Ping",
"Number of Retries", and "Retry Timeout" fields.
V.Internet Address to Ping
The address will be ping'd if the address field has a non-zero address and the
mode is set to netif_backup. If the channel is unable to ping the address for the
"Number of Retries" times in "Retry Timeout" intervals. The channel will switch
adapters.
VI.Number of Retries
The number of retries is the number of ping response failures before the channel
switches adapters. The default is 3 times.
VII.Retry Timeout
The retry timeout is the interval in seconds between the times when the channel
will send out a ping packet and poll the adapter's Link Status. The defauls is 1 sec
intervals.

"Etherchannel" is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc.