IP MultiPathing (Auto-NIC Failover) in HP-UX

[Alzhy]

Does HP-UX have something similar to Solaris' IP Multipathing. This is to provide redundancy to a server's network connection so when a fault on the NIC, cable or switch port happens - the server will stay up with the public IP adsress (or IPAddre's) automagically switched to the other NIC -- thereby resulting in no loss of connectivity.

Thanks!

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Nelson,

The only way I know how to do this is with MC/Service Guard.
You can run MC/SG without any packages defined, but with primary & failover NICs defined & then when primary fails MC/SG flips over to the failover. And NO these aren't virtual IPs - they're normal IPs.

HTH,
Jeff

[Alzhy]

Okay... but is MC/SG "free"?

Anyone aware of 3rd-party, Non-HP NIC/Lan redundancy tools available?

So how do you guys configure HA systems that do not necessarily employ implementing a cluster? We're just after providing network resiliency so a Network card failure or a switch port failure do not bring a server down?

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

No, its not free.'

There is another possible solution called Auto Port Agregation(APA). Its designed to work with multi port NIC cards, but it may also team cards in a machien with multiple cards. They end up with the SAME IP address, so if a port or card goes down, nobody except systems administration notices.

Its also not free.

You probably have other options. There are open source products that perform this function in the Linux World.

Obviously, you could try and port it to HP-UX.

APA isn't that expensive, I think I was once quoted $1,300 for a single license.

SEP

[rick jones]

At first MX/SG was the only thing that could switch IP addresses from one interface to another.

Now there is Auto Port Aggregation, which can be used to increase capacity and/or provide link HA. When a link fails under APA, traffic is rebalanced across the remaining NICs.

APA works equally well with single and multi-port NICs.

Manuals for APA are on docs.hp.com.