How Reactive Networking Works With Other Oracle Solaris Networking Technologies

Reactive network configuration works with the following Oracle Solaris networking technologies:

• Network virtualization

  Reactive network configuration works with the various Oracle Solaris network virtualization technologies as follows:

  • Virtual machines: Oracle VM Server for SPARC (formerly Logical Domains) and Oracle VM VirtualBox

    Reactive network profiles are supported in both Oracle Solaris hosts and guests. Reactive network configuration manages only the interfaces that belong to the specified virtual machines and does not interfere with other virtual machines.

  • Oracle Solaris Zones and stack instances

    Reactive network profiles work in the global zone or in an exclusive stack, non-global zone.

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    Note - Reactive network profiles cannot be used in a shared stack zone, as the network configuration for shared stack zones is always managed in the global zone.

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• Dynamic reconfiguration and NCPs

  The system's network configuration supports dynamic reconfiguration (DR) and hot-plug features only on systems that support these capabilities. You can use these features to add or remove a device if the active NCP on the system is either reactive (Automatic or any user-defined reactive profile) or fixed (DefaultFixed). However, the behavior of the system varies depending on the active profile.

  When the Automatic profile is active and a device is plugged in, the Automatic NCP automatically creates the IP configuration for the newly added device. If a device is removed while any reactive (Automatic or user-defined) profile is active, IP is unconfigured for the device, though only the Automatic NCP removes the persistent configuration. When a fixed profile is the active NCP, IP configuration must be explicitly added after adding a device, or removed before removing a device.

  For more information about dynamically configuring devices, see Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Devices and File Systems. For more information about performing dynamic reconfiguration when you are using a fixed profile, see How to Replace a Network Interface Card With Dynamic Reconfiguration in Connecting Systems Using Fixed Network Configuration in Oracle Solaris 11.1.

• Fixed networking commands

  You can use the ipadm and dladm commands to view the current network configuration and to modify the currently active NCP, when the active NCP is DefaultFixed or a user-defined NCP that is managed by reactive networking. Note that when a reactive (NWAM-managed) NCP is active, links and interfaces created with these commands are assigned implicit activation conditions, such that they depend on their underlying link or interface. For example, if dladm is used to create a VNIC, that VNIC NCU has an implicit dependency on its underlying link.

  For more information about the ipadm and dladm commands, see Chapter 4, Working With IP Interfaces, in Connecting Systems Using Fixed Network Configuration in Oracle Solaris 11.1 and Chapter 3, Working With Datalinks, in Connecting Systems Using Fixed Network Configuration in Oracle Solaris 11.1.