Data … as usual

Here are some commands to create a basic network configuration on Solaris 11.

First of all, the physical network service must be started and the network automagic (nwam) service has to be stopped (for information, nwam is a new solaris 11 service that automates network configuration).

– Check physical network service:

root@S11:~# svcs | grep network/physical
online 20:09:37 svc:/network/physical:upgrade
online 20:09:45 svc:/network/physical:default

– Check nwam:

root@S11:~# svcs | grep nwam
root@S11:~#

If you have to start or stop those services, you can use these commands:

root@S11:~# svcadm disable network/physical:nwam 
root@S11:~# svcadm enable network/physical:default

In my first example, I run a Solaris 11 x86-64 virtual machine with 3 network interfaces (net0 and net1 are used for my own use, and net2 which is used for this example. A fourth interface net3 will be added to illustrate my second example).

First command is dladm which is use to administer data-links. I use the show-phys option to get physical information of my interfaces:

root@S11:~# dladm show-phys
LINK              MEDIA                STATE      SPEED  DUPLEX    DEVICE
net0              Ethernet             up         1000   full      e1000g0
net1              Ethernet             up         1000   full      e1000g1
net2              Ethernet             unknown    0      unknown   e1000g2

There’s another useful option “show-link” which will help you to show your interface status and other information (for example, the MTU).

root@S11:~# dladm show-link
LINK                CLASS     MTU    STATE    OVER
net0                phys      1500   up       --
net1                phys      1500   up       --
net2                phys      1500   unknown  --

(dladm has a lot of option you can explore with the man page or oracle official documentation : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23824_01/)

Ok, now we need to create our interface. In this example, we will create an IP interface (We will see later how to create an IPMP interface).

To do this operation, we will use the “ipadm” tool (ipadm is the tool used to configure the IP protocol).

root@S11:~# ipadm create-ip net2
root@S11:~# dladm show-link
LINK                CLASS     MTU    STATE    OVER
net0                phys      1500   up       --
net1                phys      1500   up       --
net2                phys      1500   up       --

Now the link is up but is not active:

root@S11:~# ipadm show-if
IFNAME     CLASS    STATE    ACTIVE OVER
lo0        loopback ok       yes    --
net0       ip       ok       yes    --
net1       ip       ok       yes    --
net2       ip       down     no     --

To finish this basic configuration, we have just to create the address on this interface. We have the choice to use a static configuration or a dynamic one by getting the address from a DHCP Server.

Note that addresses are managed by an address object which is formatted like this : interface/IP protocol

• Dynamic configuration.

root@S11:~# ipadm create-addr -T dhcp net2/v4

Note: if you want to configure which information will be requested by the client to the DHCP server, you can edit the /etc/default/dhcpagent file (especially the PARAM_REQUEST_LIST parameter).

• Static configuration.

root@S11:~# ipadm create-addr -T static -a 192.168.99.102/24 net2/v4

Now the address is up and the routing table has been updated:

root@S11:~# ipadm show-addr
ADDROBJ           TYPE     STATE        ADDR
lo0/v4            static   ok           127.0.0.1/8
net0/v4           dhcp     ok           10.0.2.15/24
net1/v4           static   ok           192.168.99.101/24
net2/v4           static   ok           192.168.99.102/24
lo0/v6            static   ok           ::1/128

root@S11:~# netstat -r

Routing Table: IPv4
  Destination           Gateway           Flags  Ref     Use     Interface
-------------------- -------------------- ----- ----- ---------- ---------
default              10.0.2.2             UG        3        169 net0
10.0.2.0             10.0.2.15            U         3          0 net0
S11                  S11                  UH        4        310 lo0
192.168.99.0         192.168.99.102       U         3         63 net2
192.168.99.0         192.168.99.101       U         2       1172 net1

Routing Table: IPv6
  Destination/Mask            Gateway                   Flags Ref   Use    If
--------------------------- --------------------------- ----- --- ------- -----
S11                         S11                         UH      2      14 lo0

On the second example, I will show how to configure an IPMP (IP Multipath address). IPMP interface can be used on a RAC configuration to secure network link.

Well, now you know how to configure an IP address on an IP interface, this will be too easy 😉

First, configure two network IP interfaces and configure two IPv4 addresses on it:

root@S11:~# ipadm create-ip net2
root@S11:~# ipadm create-ip net3
root@S11:~# ipadm create-addr -T static -a 192.168.99.102/24 net2/v4
root@S11:~# ipadm create-addr -T static -a 192.168.99.103/24 net3/v4

Next, create an IPMP interface and add it both interfaces you have just configured:

root@S11:~# ipadm create-ipmp ipmp0
root@S11:~# ipadm add-ipmp -i net2 -i net3 ipmp0

At this step, we have an IPMP interface configured with two “slave” interfaces. Final step is to configure an address on this interface:

root@S11:~# ipadm create-addr -T static -a 192.168.99.105/24 ipmp0/v4
root@S11:~# ifconfig ipmp0
ipmp0: flags=8001000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,IPMP> mtu 1500 index 11
        inet 192.168.99.105 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.99.255
        groupname ipmp0

Our ipmp address is now configured and active (you can make some tests or “snoop” the ipmp0 interface to view what’s happening on it).

root@S11:~# ipadm show-if
IFNAME     CLASS    STATE    ACTIVE OVER
lo0        loopback ok       yes    --
net0       ip       ok       yes    --
net1       ip       ok       yes    --
net2       ip       ok       yes    --
net3       ip       ok       yes    --
ipmp0      ipmp     ok       yes    net2 net3