Auto port aggregation problem

[Hilary Nicholson]

Hi,

I'm trying to set up auto port aggregation on an N class server. I have 2 FDDI cards and 2 gigabit cards. I have edited /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf and hp_apaportconf, but when I start apa I get the following messages

lan900
/usr/sbin/lanadmin -X -g 900 900 900
New Group Capability = 900
/usr/sbin/lanadmin -X -a 1 3 900
ERROR: Error: The mode of the port 1 is invalid for this command
lan901
/usr/sbin/lanadmin -X -y off 901
New Hot Standby = OFF
/usr/sbin/lanadmin -X -g 901 901 901
New Group Capability = 901
/usr/sbin/lanadmin -X -a 2 4 901
ERROR: Error: The mode of the port 2 is invalid for this command


Due to environment issues, these cards are currently not attached to the network. Is this causing me the problems, or is there something else wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Hilary

[MAUCCI_2]

Hi Hilary,

I used to encounter 2 problems when trying to set APA up.

1st one was related to kernel parameter STRMSGZ being too low (i.e. 8K instead of 64K)

2nd problem which might be yours was related to the lan port involved in APA config not receiving ethernet signal, i.e. either not being cabled at all or not being linked to an ethernet equipment (NIC, hub, etc...).

Please check your lans... physically...
Or you can somehow verify that with lanadmin command

lanadmin -g mibstats 0 | grep Status
to check lan0
lanadmin -g mibstats 1 | grep Status
to check lan1

etc...

e.g.
Administration Status (value) = up(1)
Operation Status (value) = down(2)

means that lan card is working properly (Admin Status up) but is not receiving ethernet signal (Opera Status down)



++Cyrille

[Vincent Fleming]

You don't say what kind of switches you are using, so...

I've had problems with other (non-HPUX) systems doing APA because of the switch configuration. It varies greatly by switch manufacturer, but it can matter (I haven't actually tried this with HPUX) which order you set the settings - ie: host first or switch first, and connected or disconnected at the time of the configuration.

Generally, most worked best when disconnected, and the switch being setup (LACP usually worked best, but that depends on HPUX supporting that, which I don't know), then the host being setup, then reconnected.

Sorry I haven't more relevent experience, but I hope this helps a little. Perhaps someone else here can elaborate.

Good luck,

Vince

[Hilary Nicholson]

Thanks for the replies.

I think the problem is related to the fact that there is currently no cables plugged into these lan cards.

I am waiting for the network connections to be laid and a suitable outage to cable them up, so watch this space...

Hilary

[rick jones]

Heck, I wasn't even sure we supported APA on FDDI cards :) IIRC the types of NICs have to be the same in an aggregate, so you cannot trunk and FDDI with a GbE.

Also, I would be surprised if any FDDI concentrators supported LACP or any of the other aggregatation protocols, so any trunk with FDDI probably needs to be a manual config as opposed to one using the aggregation protocols.

[Xianjie Zhang]

Hi, Hilary,

FDDI cards can not be used with "normal" aggregations, they can only be configured as LAN Monitor fail-over group. Based on the error messages, lan1 and lan2 should be FDDI cards. Can you confirm that?

The configuration file for LAN Monitor is "/etc/lanmon/lanconfig.ascii". Please refer to the user's guide about how to configure a LAN Monitor failover group.

Caveat:
To successfully configure a LAN Monitor fail-over group, the cards MUST be connected.

If you are running with the latest patch, cable connections are NOT required to configure "normal" (NOT LAN Monitor) aggregations. (Of course, cable connections are required for the aggregation to be useful, e.g., carrying traffic.) That is why you did not get error messages for the 2 gigabit cards.

HTH.

[Hilary Nicholson]

Hi,

The 2 FDDI cards (lan1 and lan3) are set as LAN_MONITOR
The 2 gigabit cards (lan2 and lan4) are set to FEC_AUTO, and do give the same type of error message, which I have put down to no cable connections.

I have downloaded and applied the latest patches for APA.

I think I need to wait until this server can be added to the production network and see what happens then.

Thanks,

Hilary

[Xianjie Zhang · Accepted solution]

Now I see.
The problem with lan1 and lan3 is that FDDI cards can ONLY be used with LAN_MONITOR mode.
The problem with lan2 and lan4 is that they are set to run FEC_AUTO in /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaportconf, but you have an entry in /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf trying to MANUALLY add lan2 and lan4 to lan901. Please remove the line that read as: "HP_APA_MANUAL_LA[*]=2,4" (Other lines should remain unchanged.)

(Also remove the line with "HP_APA_MANUAL_LA[*]=1,3".
* stands for your index number, e.g., 0, 1 )

[Hilary Nicholson]

Thanks. I removed the HP_APA_MANUAL_LA[1]=2,4 and HP_APA_MANUAL_LA[0]=1,3 from hp_apaconf and apa now restarts without any errors. A lanscan is still not showing anything different, but possibly this is down to no cables?

Thanks

Hilary

[Xianjie Zhang]

After you connect the cables and set up the switch correctly, you should be able to see that lan2 and lan4 are in the aggregation of lan901.
Note:
(1) the FDDI cards have to be configured in LAN Monitor only.
(2) Since you are running FEC_AUTO mode on the server, the ethernet switch must support FEC (FastEtherChannel), and the corresponding ports must be configured to run FEC.

[Hilary Nicholson]

Thanks for the help. I had to amend the configuration of the gigabit ethernet cards, so they were manual, and have a hotstandby, but the lan ports do aggregate.

Thanks for all yopur help.

Regards,

Hilary