Use always same MAC in APA

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi experts,

My box: rp5470, HP-UX 11i running Auto Port Agreggation.

As far as I know, a link aggregate will use the MAC from the first port, and if this fails, it will use the MAC of the last port. My question, is it possible to use always the same MAC, even if the first port goes down?
I want to use always the same MAC for a link aggregate, without worrying about which is the current port in use. Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Zigor

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Zigor,

Although I've never had to do it or even if it can be done, the only place I'd think it could be set would be the /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf file. You know, just like you hardcode a MAC for a "standard" NIC.

Something like
HP_APA_STATION_ADDRESS=your_mac_here

But I don't see that option in any of the guides, so you may be SOL here.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Mel Burslan]

If I understood your question correctly, you want to use the same mac address regardless of the physical network interface you are using.

As far as I know, mac addresses are bound to the hardware and they change when the interface you use changes. Unless hp has an obscure driver that I am not aware of, which can do what-so-called MAC Address Masquerading, what you want to do is not possible.

[Xianjie Zhang]

As you mentioned, currently APA does not support this. The MAC address of APA link aggregation is always that of the first physical link that is active.

Can you clarify why keeping the same MAC address is critical?

A possible work-around for MANUAL link aggregate is to set the MAC addresses of all link to the same before aggregating. (If you ever want to dismantle the linkagg later, you must restore the MAC address of each port by yourself.)

This will NOT work for Auto (PAgP and LACP). It will NOT work for LAN Monitor either.

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

for certain clients, if this server is a DHCP/Xterm fileserver, the fact that the host changes macaddy is actually a security hole. If you happen to use xterms via this server with apa, you'll have to patch the terms (who do verify source mac)

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi again,

First, thank you very much for your answers.
We have several devices in our lan which have "hardcoded" the MAC of the server. If a physical network port goes down, I want to automatically get the other one running with the same MAC.
Actually ( never used APA before ) we use "hpetherconf" to hardcode the MAC, so in case of disaster I only need to put my OS disks into other server and it will work fine.
But now APA come into play ( so I want to take advantage of the hot standby capability ), and it looks like we will not be able to use it for this specific network.
About the workaround, by preassigning the same MAC to several ports, and then creating the linkagg, sounds good, but I need something quite automatic. In case of disaster, I will take my OS disks and put it on other box, so I need that, during the boot process, those physical ports being configured with the same MAC and then the linkagg automatically created. Just like I'm already doing without APA.

Thanks again.

Kind regards,
Zigor