topic Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW? in Operating System - HP-UX

Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Enrico Venturi — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 05:00:18 GMT

Hello colleagues,
does Automatic Port Aggregation require that main and spare cards are of the same type?
Or we can protect a 1 Gigabyte card with a 10MByte one?

regards
Enrico

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Ivajlo Yanakiev — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 05:44:07 GMT

Read this :
http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/adapters/apa_prodbrief.html

if you need more info let me know

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Enrico Venturi — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 06:01:57 GMT

I just needed an answer to my question :-)
I knew that there was a document....
the fact is:
I can or I cannot?

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Ivajlo Yanakiev — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 06:17:59 GMT

Generaly it is good idea that you use same addapter. But answer on you question is YES
You can use different addapter :)

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Pete Randall — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:30:40 GMT

Enrico,

Here's a quote from the "HP APA Support Guide"
http://docs.hp.com/cgi-bin/fsearch/framedisplay?top=/hpux/onlinedocs/J4240-90027/J4240-90027_top.html&con=/hpux/onlinedocs/J4240-90027/00/00/1-con.html&toc=/hpux/onlinedocs/J4240-90027/00/00/1-toc.html&searchterms=%20%20HP%20Auto%20Port%20Aggregation%20%28APA%29%20Support%20Guide&queryid=20041206-052701

"# 100BT or Gigabit devices may be used in the link aggregation. However, all the devices in the link aggregation must be of one type, 100BT or Gigabit. And the physical devices in the link aggregation must be configured for the same speed and duplex. (Note: EISA 100BT devices are not supported.)"

I think it sounds like they need to be the same!

Pete

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Enrico Venturi — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 08:05:44 GMT

Thanks a lot!!

I'm interested in the LAN monitor mode.....

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Alzhy — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 08:24:46 GMT

Yes you can but that will mean forcinfg the speed of your highest speed LAN NIC to match the lowest speed. In your scenario - that would mean configuring your 1G NIC to math your 10Mbps NIC .. which I think is utterly senseless in the first place.

If you use a non-APA approach (ie. via watchdog scripts that will bring up the 10Mbps when death on the 1Gbps is detected) you can have each of the NIC operating at its highest rated speed...

HTH

Re: Does APA require homogeneous HW?

Pete Randall — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 09:47:16 GMT

Just to make really sure, here's another quote:

"Planning Your HP APA Configuration

1. Before configuring HP APA, obtain the following information:
* Determine which network physical interfaces installed in the HP server can be used for the HP APA link aggregation.
Only those interfaces supported by HP APA can be used. All 100BT interfaces except the EISA 100BT interfaces are supported. Please note that EISA 100BT does not exist on HP-UX 11i v2, and HP-PB 100BT doesn't exist on 11i v2. All Gigabit interfaces are supported.
All link aggregation devices must be of the same type: all 100BT or all 1000BASE-x.
All the devices in the link aggregation must be configured for the same speed and duplex."

You definitely can't mix and definitely not 10BT at all.

Pete