topic Re: link level connectivity on RHEL!! in Operating System - Linux

link level connectivity on RHEL!!

astra — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:13:05 GMT

Hello All,

I am doing channel bonding on RHEL 4.0. But I am not able check link level connectivity. Is there any command like "linklloop" as on HP-ux?? Please suggest how easily i can check the link level connectivity on Linux?

Regards,
Amit

Re: link level connectivity on RHEL!!

smatador — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:56:37 GMT

Hi,

Linkloop exist for linux
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=linkloop
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linkloop/
You could try it.

Hope it helps

Re: link level connectivity on RHEL!!

Ivan Ferreira — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:59:49 GMT

With linux, normally you use the ethtool command to identify if link was detected. Also, check the input packets on the output of ifconfig command. You should always get increasing input packets even without IP configured.

Re: link level connectivity on RHEL!!

rick jones — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:33:00 GMT

After you have tried, and hopefully liked, the Linux implementation of the HP-UX linkloop functionality, contact Red Hat and ask them when/if they will make it available in a release. I can guarantee it will never happen with something as ancient as RHEL4, but it could conceivably happen for RHEL5 and one would hope it were possible for RHEL6. However, Red Hat needs to hear the desire from customers.

I'm told, but have not confirmed myself, that "managed" ProCurve switches will respond to the type of IEEE-defined frames the linkloop command will issue - if you happen to know the MAC address being used by the switch :)

Re: link level connectivity on RHEL!!

rick jones — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:37:05 GMT

Ivan - linkloop goes beyond a simple reporting of link state for an interface. It attempts to exchange a certain type of ethernet frame (IEEE 802.3 frame actually) with a specified MAC address over a specified interface. Think of it as a link-level (layer 2) version of ping (layer 3) one can use without having to worry about IP addresses. Modulo of course, being confined to the same broadcast domain, unlike ping.