MACaddr syntax on LAG config?

[John McNulty_2]

Hello, I've recently set up a multi NIC Link Aggregation Group on a GS1280. Problem is that when the system boots (I think) the MAC address assigned to lag0 sometimes changes. One of the applications running on the system uses the MAC address as part of its license key check, so when that happens the application fails to start.

The fix seems easy enough; just specify the MAC address I want when configuring the LAG group. So in inet.local I have:

lagconfig -c lag=lag0,key=1,dist=port,macaddr=00-08-02-91-4F-57
lagconfig -p bcm1 key=1
lagconfig -p bcm2 key=1
lagconfig -p bcm5 key=1
lagconfig -p bcm7 key=1
lagconfig -p bcm8 key=1
lagconfig -p bcm10 key=1
lagconfig -p bcm11 key=1
ifconfig lag0 172.17.128.156 netmask 255.255.255.0

My question is, should the macaddr be hyphen separated, or colon separated (00:08:02:91:4F:57) or doesn't it matter?

If I've got this wrong then the next time this system reboots the network is going to fail and my customer is going to get rather upset.

Can someone advise please?

Thanks.

[Rob Leadbeater · Accepted solution]

Hi John,

I can't find anything in the lag documentation, but the man page for ifconfig suggests that you should probably be specifying macaddr as colon separated...(examples 14 and 15)

http://h30097.www3.hp.com/docs/base_doc/DOCUMENTATION/V51B_HTML/MAN/MAN8/0507____.HTM

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Rob

[John McNulty_2]

Hi Rob,

Yeah, it's confusing isn't it. I'd originally taken my lead from "hwmgr get attr -cat network ....." which lists MAC addresses using hyphens.

I wish I had a box free to play around with this that wasn't in production. My home Alpha doesn't have LAG supported cards unfortunately.

Regards,

John

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi John,

I just happened to look at the man page for arp. This explains the differences between a colon and a hyphen in MAC addresses.

If the same logic is used in the lagconfig, then you should probably be using the hyphen...(maybe !)

Cheers,

Rob

[John McNulty_2]

Hi Rob,

As it happens I've got an opportunity to test this on another system tomorrow afternoon. So I'll try it both ways, see which one works, and then post my results back here after.

Thanks for taking an interest :)

John

[John McNulty_2]

And the answer is it works both ways. I tried it on a system with just two NICs and it handles either hyphen or colon separated MAC addresses. Either one sets all the NICs in the Lag Group to the same MAC address.

# hwmgr get attr -cat network -a name -a MAC_address -a media_type -a link
60:
name = bcm0
MAC_address = 00-1F-29-32-65-0F
media_type = Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
link = Up
84:
name = bcm1
MAC_address = 00-1F-29-32-65-0F
media_type = Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
link = Up


Thanks again for looking Rob.

John

[John McNulty_2]

Closing as solution has been found as described in the thread.