LDOMS I/O Best Practices - Network Availability With Logical Domains 
by Peter A. Wilson
September 2008
Virtually every server in a modern datacenter depends on network connectivity in order to access resources and provide services to clients. The best practice for enhancing network connectivity is to configure multiple physical paths to the network so that if a network adapter, cable, or upstream switch fails due to equipment problems or human error, the second path continues to carry traffic. Redundant physical connections must be complemented with software that can fail over between links in the event of an error. The Solaris™ Operating System supports IP multipathing (IPMP). This allows a system to be configured to automatically fail over a group of IP addresses hosted on multiple interfaces while load sharing outbound traffic across all available links.
Contents
- Network Availability With Logical Domains
- Introducing Logical Domains
- Network Availability Overview
- Availability Through Redundancy
- IP Multipathing In the Solaris OS
- IP Multipathing In Logical Domains
- Configuring Network Availability
- Prerequisites for IPMP with Logical Domains
- IP Multipathing In Logical Domains
- Configuring IPMP with Two I/O Domains
- Configure a Second I/O Domain
- Configure IPMP in the Guest Domain
- Test IPMP in the Guest Domain
- Configuring IPMP in a Single I/O Domain
- Configure the I/O Domain
- Configure IPMP in the Guest Domain and Test
- Summary
- About The Author
- Acknowledgments
- References
- Ordering Sun Documents
- Accessing Sun Documentation Online
Peter A. Wilson has more than 16 years of industry experience, 12 of which have been with Sun, serving in a wide variety of hardware, software, systems and product marketing roles. Peter moved from the United Kingdom to the US in 2000 to lead the customer tests of Sun's Netra™ and fault-tolerant servers. Peter is currently a technical marketing engineer responsible for all aspects of Sun's servers with CoolThreads technology. Peter holds a M.Eng (Master of Engineering) degree in Microelectronics and Software Engineering from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K.
The author would like to thank Steve Gaede, an independent technical writer and engineer, for working through the issues and configurations described in this paper and developing this article based on them. Thanks also to Alexandre Chartre and Narayan Venkat for their help in understanding some of the nuances of Logical Domains.
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