Problem with Gigabit Etherrnet cards

[Norman Lowe]

Have got two 1000Base-SX cards installed on each of two RP5430 servers. Have used ifconfig to configure the IP address and netmask for each and have also put the details in the /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file. I cannot ping any other addresses via these cards, although I can ping their addresses from the machine they are attached to. ifconfig and lanscan both show the interfaces UP. The green lights on the cards are on and the networks people assure me that the cabling is connected up correctly. Am I missing something? Help!

[melvyn burnard]

what does your routing statement say?

post the /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file here

[Norman Lowe]

netconf file attached. The gigabit cards are lan5 and lan6

[Christopher McCray_1]

Hello,

What does the output of netstat -rn show for your default gateway? If nothing, use the route command to add your default gateway, or use set_parms addl_netwrk command.

# route add default

or

# set_parms addl_netwrk (then answer the questions)

Hope this helps

Chris

[Norman Lowe]

netstat -rn output as follows:

Routing tables
Dest/Netmask Gateway Flags Refs Use Interface Pmtu
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 0 19 lo0 4136
147.149.178.50 147.149.178.50 UH 0 0 lan2 4136
147.149.178.49 147.149.178.49 UH 0 0 lan1 4136
10.249.130.26 10.249.130.26 UH 0 0 lan0 4136
192.168.1.49 192.168.1.49 UH 0 0 lan5 4136
192.168.1.50 192.168.1.50 UH 0 0 lan6 4136
147.149.178.0 147.149.178.50 U 2 0 lan2 1500
147.149.178.0 147.149.178.49 U 2 0 lan1 1500
192.168.1.0 192.168.1.50 U 2 0 lan6 1500
192.168.1.0 192.168.1.49 U 2 0 lan5 1500
10.249.130.0 10.249.130.26 U 2 0 lan0 1500
127.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 U 0 0 lo0 4136
default 147.149.178.1 UG 0 0 lan2 1500

[Christopher McCray_1]

Hello again,

Check out this document:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xd4c10bce6f33d6118fff0090279cd0f9,00.html

Hope this helps

Chris

[Norman Lowe]

Thanks. This didn't give ne the actual answer, but it did start me experimenting with routes. If I delete one of the two routes to 192.168.1.0, then I can ping other address on that net, but if I have both routes to 192.168.1.0 (i.e. via lan5 and lan6) then it doesn't work. Furthermore, if I have, for example, only the lan5 route set then I can't see the lan6 interface from other machines on the network; I can only see the lan5 interface. Is there some problem with having two of these cards on one machine?

[melvyn burnard · Accepted solution]

There is no problem having multiple cards like this, but what I do see you have is the two cards are on the same subnet.
This is unsupported, and can cause issues like you are seeing.

[Norman Lowe]

Thank you. This explains it. I wish we'd known before we went and bought two cards for each machine, though!

[melvyn burnard]

well you could change the subnets they ar eon, or look into installing MC/ServiceGuard and having your lans set up as standby/redundant lans.
Another option is to maybe look at Auto Port Aggregation software and "tunnel" the two lans together.

[rick jones]

definitely look into APA - that is the best way to go about having failover and such for NICs. it will bind the two physical NICs together into one aggregate link that you can then assign multiple IP addresses.

there are ways to configure multiple interfaces into the same subnet, though you have to do things with explicit host routes and/or use things like ip_strong_es_model in ndd. there will be no automagic failover - you would have to script it.

also, if you want to verify physical connectivity, HP includes a utility called linkloop - it can do link-level "pings" if the remote will respond to either an XID or TEST frame. Other HP-UX systems will, not sure about other vendors. you basically point linkloop at a PPA (interface) and destination MAC address and it tells you if it is reachable. that eliminates any concerns about IP routing when trying to verify connetivity through ping(1m) or traceroute

[Norman Lowe]

APA software is already installed on the system and I notice from lanscan that it has set up some interfaces for this, which are all showing as DOWN. What steps do I need to take to start using this with the two gigabit cards?

[melvyn burnard]

I suggest a visit to the following documentation page:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/netcom/index.html#Auto%20Port%20Aggregation%20(APA)

This should help get you going