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Solaris tip of the week: Link Aggregation and Logical Interfaces
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apa(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual apa(7) NAME
apa - HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) to create link aggregates (often called trunks) and failover groups of network links DESCRIPTION
HP APA, the HP link aggregate or trunking product, provides the ability to logically group two or more physical network ports into a single Fat Pipe, often called a Network traffic is load balanced across all of the links in the aggregation, which allows you to build large band- width logical links into the server that are highly available and completely transparent to the client and server applications. HP APA is available for HP-UX 11i V1, V2 and V3. In addition to increased performance, enterprise users require protection against business interruptions and loss of productivity. HP APA features automatic link failure detection and the ability to transfer traffic to one of the redundant links in a specified failover group. This is done transparently to the applications to ensure a highly available environment. Like any other LAN interface, configure IP addresses on these APA lan interfaces using the command. See ifconfig(1M)) for more informa- tion. FEATURES AND BENEFITS
HP APA provides the following key benefits: o Bandwidth scalability: Allows scaling of networks to improve aggregate throughput. o High availability: Provides redundancy or link aggregate of network ports. o Load balancing: Supports load balancing and failure recovery capabilities and distributes traffic across the aggregated links, based on IP addresses, TCP/UDP Port numbers, or MAC addresses. o Single MAC address: Assigns one single logical MAC address to an aggregate and all its ports. o Flexibility: Allows addition and deletion of ports in an aggregate to achieve desired performance whenever needed. o Investment protection: Utilizes Ethernet technology, which provides a natural upgrade path for current Ethernet installations, leveraging existing end-stations, management tools and training. o Lower IT costs: Provides automated configuration and management tools using the IEEE 802.3ad standard or FEC protocol. CONFIGURATION MODES
HP APA allows the following configuration modes: o Used for link aggregates on HP servers that are connected to a switch that has manual aggregation (trunk) configured. o Used for link aggregates on HP servers that are connected to a switch that has aggregation (trunk) configured with Cisco's Fast EtherChannel (FEC) protocol, also known as PAgP. o Used for link aggregates on HP servers that are connected to a switch that has aggregation (trunk) configured with IEEE 802.3ad (LACP) protocol. o Used for failover group configuration on HP servers. There is no special feature required on switch connected to the links. MANAGING APA CONFIGURATION
APA interfaces can be configured and managed by using the (SMH): o On the SMH page, click the tab, then click in the section. o Use the text based interactive tool: See smh(1M) for more information. APA interfaces can also be configured and managed by using the command line interface. See nwmgr(1M) and nwmgr_apa(1M) manpages or run: for information on how to use the command for configuring APA interfaces. APA interfaces can also be configured and managed by using the legacy command for link aggregates and by using the command for failover group. These commands are available since initial release of the product. However, starting with the HP-UX 11i V3 APA product, HP recom- mends using the command instead of using and commands. See the documents listed in the for details on how to use these commands. PRODUCT DOCUMENTATION
For detailed information, including installation, configuration, and troubleshooting, please see the following documents at in the I/O Cards and Networking Software collection: o o WARNINGS
The and commands are deprecated. These commands will be removed in a future HP-UX release. HP recommends the use of replacement command to perform all network interface-related tasks. FILES
Link Aggregate configuration file Port configuration file Failover group configuration file AUTHORS
The Auto Port Aggregation (APA) product is developed by HP. SEE ALSO
netstat(1), ifconfig(1M), lanadmin(1M), lanscan(1M), linkloop(1M), nwmgr(1M), nwmgr_apa(1M), smh(1M), lan(7). apa(7)
