Basic dladm Commands

Basic `dladm` Commands

This section describes basic dladm commands that you might regularly use on the system's datalinks. More dladm subcommands are supported than those listed in this section. For other subcommands, see the dladm(1M) man page.

Note - Except for the dladm subcommands that display datalink information, all other subcommands first require the removal of any existing interface configuration over the datalink. To remove IP interface configuration, see Removing an IP Interface Configuration (ipadm delete-ip).

Displaying General Information About Datalinks (`dladm`)

If used by itself, the dladm command displays general information about the system's datalinks, including their class, state, and underlying physical links.

# dladm
LINK        CLASS     MTU     STATE     OVER
net0        phys      1500    unknown   --
net1        phys      1500    up        --
net2        phys      1500    unknown   --
net3        phys      1500    unknown   --
net4        phys      1500    up        --
aggr0       aggr      1500    up        net1,net4

The datalinks can be of different classes other than being physical links, such as link aggregations, virtual LANs (VLANs), or virtual NICs (VNICs). These other datalinks are also included in the default information displayed by the dladm command. For example, the output shows a link aggregation aggr0 configured over the physical datalinks net1 and net4.

For information about link aggregations and VLANs, see Managing Oracle Solaris 11.1 Network Performance. For information about VNICs, see Using Virtual Networks in Oracle Solaris 11.1.

Displaying a System's Datalinks (`dladm show-link`)

Use dladm show-link to display the datalinks on a system. A system has as many datalinks as installed NICs. You can use options with this command to customize the information you obtain. For example, using the -P option includes persistent configuration information about the datalinks. Based on the information provided by this command, you can proceed with further network configuration. For example, you can determine the number of NICs on the system, and you can select which datalink to use, over which you can configure IP interfaces.

When you issue the command, information similar to the following is displayed:

# dladm show-link -P
LINK        CLASS     OVER
net0        phys      --
net1        phys      --
net2        phys      --

This example shows that a system has three datalinks that are directly associated with their corresponding physical NICs. No special datalinks exist, such as aggregations or virtual NICs, which are configured over the datalinks under the phys class.

Displaying Physical Attributes of Datalinks (`dladm show-phys`)

Use dladm show-phys to obtain information about the system's datalinks in relation to the physical NICs with which they are associated. Used without any options, the command displays information similar to the following:

# dladm show-phys
LINK        MEDIA          STATE     SPEED     DUPLEX     DEVICE
net0        Ethernet       up        100Mb     full       e1000g0
net1        Ethernet       down      0Mb       --         nge0
net2        Ethernet       up        100Mb     full       bge0
net3        Infiniband     --        0Mb       --         ibd0

The output shows, among other details, the physical NICs with which the datalinks with generic link names are associated. For example, net0 is the datalink name of the NIC e1000g0. To see information about flags that have been set for the datalinks, use the -P option. For example, a datalink that is flagged with r means that its underlying NIC has been removed.

Another useful option for the command is -L, which shows the physical location for each datalink. The location determines the instance number of the datalink such as net0, net1, and so on.

# dladm show-phys -L
LINK     DEVICE     LOCATION
net0     bge0       MB
net2     ibp0       MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT1
net3     ibp1       MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT2
net4     eoib2      MB/RISER0/PCIE0/PORT1/cloud-nm2gw-2/1A-ETH-2

Deleting a Datalink (`dladm delete-phys`)

Use dladm delete-phys to remove a datalink from the system.

Removing a datalink is only loosely connected to the removal of a physical NIC. For example, a physical NIC is removed from the system. The datalink configuration associated with that NIC remains because the software layer is no longer bound to the hardware layer, as described in Network Stack in Oracle Solaris in Introduction to Oracle Solaris 11 Networking. Thus you can still use the datalink configuration on a different underlying physical NIC by assigning that datalink's name to the other NIC's associated link.

If you detach a NIC without replacing it and you no longer need its datalink configuration, then you can delete the datalink as follows:

# dladm delete-phys datalink

Tip - To confirm whether a datalink's NIC had been removed, use the dladm show-phys -P command.

Renaming a Datalink (`dladm rename-link`)

Use dladm rename-link to rename a datalink. On an Oracle Solaris 11 system, the OS automatically provides generic names to all datalinks. Generic datalink names are described in Default Generic Link Names in Introduction to Oracle Solaris 11 Networking.

By default, these generic names use the naming format netn, such as net0, net1, net2, and so on. Because the OS manages the names, you would not rename datalinks as a regular part of your administrative tasks. For a procedure that requires changing link names, see How to Switch Primary Interfaces on a System.

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Displaying General Information About Datalinks (dladm)

Displaying a System's Datalinks (dladm show-link)

Displaying Physical Attributes of Datalinks (dladm show-phys)

Deleting a Datalink (dladm delete-phys)

Renaming a Datalink (dladm rename-link)