I have a Quad Ethernet card in a 220R. 2 ports activated. Each has its own hostname file and both hostnames are in the hosts file. I want both ports to have the same IP address so we can use the 2nd port in case we lose communication on the port. On bootup, the box gives me:
SIOCSLIFFLAGS: ce1: Cannot assign requested address

Any ideas? The 2nd port (ce1) is blinking and the system thinks it is attached. However, if I pull ce0 out, the box goes off the network.

I am running Solaris 8.

It makes no sense to do so, and looks like the OS will stop you.

Are these two both connected to the same subnet?

Both ports are connected to the same subnet. We want to do this for disaster recovery. Basically, I am trying to team these ports together for automatic failover.

How would the OS know which interface to use for outgoing packets?

How would it know one had failed, how would it decide to switch over?

BTW, are the MAC addresses different?

There is an option to set the MAC addresses to different values. Currently, I have that options set. The default is to have them the same.

As far as the OS knowing, I do not know the answer to that. That is why I am posting here, to find out the answers. HP can team interfaces together on their cards for Windows OS machines.

Look up IPMP in the Solaris documentation, that is what you are looking for.