More reliable network connections through IP Multipathing

Solaris Multipathing enables a server to have multiple network ports connected to the same subnet. Solaris IPMP software provides resilience from network adapter failure by detecting the failure or repair of a network adapter and switching the network address to and from the alternative adapter.

Making your network more reliable under Solaris is very simple: The following is an example for a host called somehost with 2 hme interfaces:

Step 1. As root, type: eeprom "local-mac-address?=true"

Step 2. Modify your /etc/hosts to look like the 2nd of the two stanzas below:

---OLD-BELOW----------
# Internet host table
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.1.26.50 somehost.domain.com loghost

---NEW-BELOW---------
# Internet host table
127.0.0.1 localhost

# IP Multipathing
10.1.26.50 somehost somehost.domain.com loghost # data address
10.1.26.150 somehost-dum # dummy data address
10.1.26.153 somehost-hme0 # test address for hme0
10.1.26.155 somehost-hme1 # test address for hme1

Step 3. Modify your /etc/hostname.xxx files to be like these two:

# cat /etc/hostname.hme0

somehost-hme0 netmask + broadcast + group production deprecated -failover up addif somehost netmask + broadcast + failover up

# cat /etc/hostname.hme1

somehost-hme1 netmask + broadcast + group production deprecated -failover up \
addif somehost netmask + broadcast + failover up

Step 4. Plumb the 2nd hme0 interface

# ifconfig hme1 plumb

Step 5. Reboot.

The Blueprint from Sun can be found at http://www.sun.com/solutions/blueprints/1102/806-7230.pdf