HP APA configuration?

[B. Jen]

I am new to HP-UX. I am trying to configure the APA. Do I need to assign both NICs with an ip address? Are there any easier step by step instructions available? The 170 pages HP APA Support Guide from HP is very hard to read!!

Thank you in advanced for answers.

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,

No, you have to define only one IP to the logical interface got after merging two physical interfaces. Try doing it through SAM. It is quite easy. But has some switch dependencies.

HTH,
Devender

[DCE]

If you have the APA software installed, you can use SAM - It will walk you right through configuring the card(s)

dave

[Steven E. Protter]

Only one IP address is needed but that defeats the purpose of the APA software.

The point is to have two network cards or ports using the same IP address.

This gives you some degree of high availability or fault tolerance. If you lose one network port on your switch or one of your APA network ports/cards your server stays online and available to users.

I'd suggest openning a software support call with the response center. This is pretty advanced stuff for an HP-UX newbie.

SEP
http://www.isnamerica.com/contactsep.shtml

[Geoff Wild]

I don't know if this will help - but this is how we configured on one of our servers...tried to put inline - didn't work - so I attached a a txt file.

Rgds...Geoff

[Matthew_50]

following is the official hp apa guide,

http://docs.hp.com/en/J4240-90027/index.html

[Alzhy]

Bernard,

DCE is correct - if you do not want to do your APA config manually -- i.e. editing files and executing certain commands, you can most certainly do it via SAM. This is how I initially did it -- afterwards I observed what files get touched and eventually understood the modes of operation of APA (i.e. trunking or simply LAN failover) as well as its manual configuration -- then you can refer back to that difficult to read manual if you want to understand further.

[AMAT SA]

Hi Jen-

Here are the steps we did in our case.

1. Identify the cards which we want APA'd. Typically one from each bus. Document their NIC numbers (lan1, Lan2 etc.)
2. I would prefer with quad cards lan1, lan6.
3. Then modify hp_apaconf and hp_apaportconf files. The example configurations are given in the file and here for eg.

HP_APAPORTCONF:

HP_APAPORT_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan1
HP_APAPORT_GROUP_CAPABILITY[0]=5
HP_APAPORT_PRIORITY[0]=0
HP_APAPORT_CONFIG_MODE[0]=FEC_MANUAL

HP_APAPORT_INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan6
HP_APAPORT_GROUP_CAPABILITY[1]=5
HP_APAPORT_PRIORITY[1]=0
HP_APAPORT_CONFIG_MODE[1]=FEC_MANUAL

HP_APACONF:
HP_APA_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan100
HP_APA_LOAD_BALANCE_MODE[0]=LB_MAC
HP_APA_HOT_STANDBY[0]=on
HP_APA_MANUAL_LA[0]=1,6

In the above example we have configure 1 and 6.

Then look at the configuration file for the type of card you have. For e.g. hpbtlanconf for a btlan driver. This can be seen with 'ioscan -fnkC lan' command.

the entry in the hpbtlanconf would be like below.
HPBTLANCONF:
HP_BTLAN_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan1
HP_BTLAN_STATION_ADDRESS[0]=
HP_BTLAN_SPEED[0]=100FD

HP_BTLAN_INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan6
HP_BTLAN_STATION_ADDRESS[1]=
HP_BTLAN_SPEED[1]=100FD

Note in the above example we set the card speed to 100FD and we did the same at the network switch end as well. If you want any other speed you can change that here. There are examples on the types of speeds in this document.

Hope this helps.
Happy APA.

NOTE: Never troubleshoot your network problem if APA is up and running. You will not get anywhere. Most of your processes would not come up anyway.

[vinod_25]

Hi Bernard

For hpux 11.11

Quick Guide for configuring an APA Link Aggregate using FEC mode.




1. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/hpbtlanconf (or applicable NIC file) for
all LANs in an APA aggregate:


HP_BTLAN_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lanx
HP_BTLAN_STATION_ADDRESS[0]=
HP_BTLAN_SPEED[0]=100FD



2. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/netconf:

a. Assign IP address to the relevant link aggregate (e.g., lan900):

INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan900
IP_ADDRESS[1]=192.1.1.41
SUBNET_MASK[1]=255.255.255.0
BROADCAST_ADDRESS[1]=""
INTERFACE_STATE[1]=""
DHCP_ENABLE[1]=0



b. Assign gateway



3. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaportconf:
(No entries for these interfaces in the netconf file)


HP_APAPORT_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan1
HP_APAPORT_GROUP_CAPABILITY[0]=5
HP_APAPORT_CONFIG_MODE[0]=FEC_AUTO

HP_APAPORT_INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan2
HP_APAPORT_GROUP_CAPABILITY[1]=5
HP_APAPORT_CONFIG_MODE[1]=FEC_AUTO





4. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf:

HP_APA_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan900
HP_APA_LOAD_BALANCE_MODE[0] =LB_ MAC
HP_APA_GROUP_CAPABILITY[0]=5
HP_APA_HOT_STANDBY[0]=off





5. Ensure that FEC is enabled if you are using FEC_AUTO ports. For a
manual aggregation a non-FEC trunk mode should be used.


6. Form the configured link aggregates by either rebooting the system
(best) or by stopping and restarting the /sbin/init.d/hpapa script.
(You could also manually add the relevant ports to the proper link
aggregates with the relevant lanadmin commandâ i.e., "lanadmin -X -a
port_PPA LinkAgg_PPA".) You can see from the following output of the
lanscan & lanscan â q commands that the prior configuration formed the link
aggregate lan900 containing lan1 & lan2:


#lanscan
LinkAgg0 0x00108319E1C2 900 UP lan900 snap900 12 ETHER Yes 119


#lanscan â q
3
0
900 1 2
901
902
903
904




7. Assign IP to the primary interface:

ifconfig lan900 192.1.1.41 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
(or execute /sbin/init.d/net start)



8. Reboot to verify that the aggregate comes up properly upon bootup
(best), or execute the relevant startup scripts: /sbin/init.d/hpapa (stop &
start), then /sbin/init.d/net (stop & start).

Regards

[vinod_25]

Hi Bernanrd

for 11.00

Quick Guide for configuring an APA Link Aggregate using FEC mode.




1. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/hpbtlanconf (or applicable NIC file) for
all LANs in an APA aggregate:


HP_BTLAN_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lanx
HP_BTLAN_STATION_ADDRESS[0]=
HP_BTLAN_SPEED[0]=100FD



2. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/netconf:

a. Assign IP address to the relevant link aggregate (e.g., lan100):

INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan100
IP_ADDRESS[1]=192.1.1.41
SUBNET_MASK[1]=255.255.255.0
BROADCAST_ADDRESS[1]=""
INTERFACE_STATE[1]=""
DHCP_ENABLE[1]=0



b. Assign gateway



3. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaportconf:
(No entries for these interfaces in the netconf file)


HP_APAPORT_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan1
HP_APAPORT_GROUP_CAPABILITY[0]=5
HP_APAPORT_CONFIG_MODE[0]=FEC_AUTO

HP_APAPORT_INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan2
HP_APAPORT_GROUP_CAPABILITY[1]=5
HP_APAPORT_CONFIG_MODE[1]=FEC_AUTO





4. Configure /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf:

HP_APA_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan100
HP_APA_LOAD_BALANCE_MODE[0] =LB_ MAC
HP_APA_GROUP_CAPABILITY[0]=5
HP_APA_HOT_STANDBY[0]=off





5. Ensure that FEC is enabled if you are using FEC_AUTO ports. For a
manual aggregation a non-FEC trunk mode should be used.


6. Form the configured link aggregates by either rebooting the system
(best) or by stopping and restarting the /sbin/init.d/hpapa script.
(You could also manually add the relevant ports to the proper link
aggregates with the relevant lanadmin commandâ i.e., "lanadmin -X -a
port_PPA LinkAgg_PPA".) You can see from the following output of the
lanscan & lanscan â q commands that the prior configuration formed the link
aggregate lan100 containing lan1 & lan2:


#lanscan
LinkAgg0 0x00108319E1C2 100 UP lan100 snap100 12 ETHER Yes 119


#lanscan â q
3
0
100 1 2
101
102
103
104




7. Assign IP to the primary interface:

ifconfig lan100 192.1.1.41 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
(or execute /sbin/init.d/net start)



8. Reboot to verify that the aggregate comes up properly upon bootup
(best), or execute the relevant startup scripts: /sbin/init.d/hpapa (stop &
start), then /sbin/init.d/net (stop & start).

Regards

[vinod_25]

hi bernard

the step no 6 is

lanscan -q

Regards

Vinod K