Other Configuration Tasks With the dladm Command

This section describes additional configuration procedures that have become simplified by using the dladm command, such as switching primary interfaces or performing dynamic reconfiguration (DR).

How to Switch Primary Interfaces on a System

Changing a system's primary interface is a case where you rename datalinks. The following procedure is based on the following system configuration:

• The system has two datalinks: net0 and net1.

• The underlying NICs are e1000g0 and nge0, respectively.

• An IP interface is configured over net0. The IP interface always takes the name of the underlying datalink.

The system's primary interface is net0 based on its instance number of zero (0). The primary interface is configured over e1000g0. The following steps guide you to make the datalink configuration over nge0 to become the configuration of the primary interface.

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Security Services.

2. Display the physical attributes of the system's datalinks.

   # dladm show-phys

3. Delete the primary IP interface.

   # ipadm delete-ip interface

   ---

   Note - For more information about the ipadm command, see Chapter 4, Working With IP Interfaces as well as the ipadm(1M) man page.

   ---

4. Replace the name of the primary link with a name that is not used by other datalinks on the system.

   # dladm rename-link primary-link unused-name

5. Assign the primary link name to the datalink designated to become the primary device.

   # dladm rename-link new-link primary-link

Example 3-1 Switching the Primary Interface

The following example combines all the steps in the procedure to change the primary interface on the system. At the end of the example, the primary interface configured over e1000g0 is replaced the interface configured over nge0. After you have switched the primary link to a different NIC, you can configure an interface over the new NIC's datalink.

# dladm show-phys
LINK   MEDIA      STATE   SPEED   DUPLEX   DEVICE
net0   Ethernet   up      100Mb    full     e1000g0
net1   Ethernet   up      100Mb    full     nge0

# ipadm delete-ip net0
# dladm rename-link net0 oldnet0
# dladm rename-link net1 net0

# ipadm create-ip net0
# ipadm create-addr -a 192.168.10.10/24 net0
ipadm: net0/v4

# dladm show-phys
LINK      MEDIA      STATE   SPEED   DUPLEX   DEVICE
oldnet0   Ethernet   up      1000    full     e1000g0
net0      Ethernet   up      1000    full     nge0

How to Replace a Network Interface Card With Dynamic Reconfiguration

This procedure applies only to systems that support dynamic reconfiguration (DR). It specifically refers to configuration steps after DR s completed. In Oracle Solaris 11, you no longer need to reconfigure your network links after you complete DR. Instead, you just transfer the link configurations of the removed NIC to the replacement NIC.

The procedure does not detail the steps to perform DR itself. Consult your system documentation for these steps.

For an introduction to DR, see Chapter 4, Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks), in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Devices and File Systems.

Before You Begin

Procedures to perform DR vary with the type of system. Make sure that you complete the following first:

• Ensure that your system supports DR.

• Consult the appropriate manual that describes DR on your system.

  To locate current documentation about DR on Sun servers from Oracle, search for dynamic reconfiguration on http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html.

  For information about performing DR in the Oracle Solaris Cluster environment, see Oracle Solaris Cluster System Administration Guide.

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Security Services.

2. (Optional) Display information about physical attributes of datalinks and their respective locations on the system.

   # dladm show-phys -L

   For more information about the type of information that is displayed by dladm show-phys -L, refer to the dladm(1M) man page.

3. Perform the DR as detailed in your system's documentation.

   Consult your system's DR documentation to perform this step.

   After you have installed the replacement NIC, proceed to the next step.

4. Perform one of the following steps depending on the circumstance that applies:

   • If you inserted the replacement NIC into the same slot as the old NIC, then proceed to Step 5.

     With the new NIC using the same location that the old NIC previously occupied, the new NIC inherits the link name and configuration of the old NIC.

   • If you inserted the replacement NIC into a different slot, and the new NIC needs to inherit the datalink configuration of the removed NIC, type:

     # dladm rename-link new-datalink old-datalink

     new-datalink

     Refers to the datalink of the replacement NIC that is in a different slot from the location from which the old NIC was removed.

     old-datalink

     Refers to the datalink name associated with the old NIC that was removed.

     ---

     Note - In this scenario, the slot from which the old NIC was removed must remain empty.

     ---

     For example, the NIC in slot 1 was removed, and the new NIC is inserted in slot 2. No NIC is inserted in slot 1. Assume that the datalink on slot 1 is net0, and the datalink on slot 2 is net1. For the datalink of the new NIC to inherit the datalink configuration of the old NIC, you would type:

     # dladm rename-link net1 net0

5. Complete the DR process by enabling the new NIC's resources to become available for use by Oracle Solaris.

   For example, you can use the cfgadm command to configure the NIC. For more information see the cfgadm(1M) man page.

6. (Optional) Display link information.

   You can use either dladm show-phys or dladm show-link to show information about the datalinks.

Example 3-2 Performing Dynamic Reconfiguration by Installing a New Network Card

This example shows how a bge card with link name net0 is replaced by an e1000g card. The link configurations of net0 are transferred from bge to e1000g after e1000g is connected to the system.

# dladm show-phys -L
LINK     DEVICE     LOCATION
net0     bge0       MB
net1     ibp0       MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT1
net2     ibp1       MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT2
net3     eoib2      MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT1/cloud-nm2gw-2/1A-ETH-2

The administrator performs the DR-specific steps such as using cfgadm to remove bge and then installing e1000g in its place. After the card is installed, the datalink of e1000g0 automatically assumes the name net0 and inherits the link configurations.

# dladm show-phys -L
LINK     DEVICE     LOCATION
net0     e1000g0    MB
net1     ibp0       MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT1
net2     ibp1       MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT2
net3     eoib2      MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT1/cloud-nm2gw-2/1A-ETH-2

# dladm show-link
LINK     CLASS     MTU    STATE    OVER
net0     phys      9600   up       ---
net1     phys      1500   down     ---
net2     phys      1500   down     --
net3     phys      1500   down     ---