Table of Contents
This chapter provides information on managing network ports and port aggregates.
A network port is the physical connection from a node to a network. In Data ONTAP 10.0 terms, it is the physical entity by which a virtual interface routes network traffic. In Data ONTAP 10.0, ports are divided into three types: data ports, which provide data access to NFS and CIFS clients; cluster ports, which provide communication among the nodes in a cluster; and management ports, which provide access to the Data ONTAP 10.0 management utility.
Port names consist of two or three characters that describes the port's type and location. The first character describes the port's type; for Data ONTAP 10.0 systems, this is always e to represent Ethernet. The second character is a numeral identifying the slot in which the port adapter card is located; the numeral 0 (zero) indicates that the port is on the node's motherboard. The third character, if listed, indicates the port's position on a multiport adapter. For instance, the port name e0b indicates the second Ethernet port on the motherboard, and the port name e3a indicates the first Ethernet port on an adapter card in slot 3.
A port aggregate is a logical association between two or more physical ports that presents a single interface to clients and combines the capabilities of the aggregated ports. Expanded capabilities include increased bandwidth, increased availability, and load sharing. For more information on port aggregation, see IEEE Standard 802.3, section 43. Unlike the IEEE Standard, Data ONTAP 10.0 port aggregation permits ports in an aggregate to have different link speeds, MTU settings, and duplex modes. These differences can affect performance but have no other negative impact.
Do not confuse port aggregates with storage aggregates (see “Storage Concepts”). To prevent possible confusion, this documentation uses the full term "port aggregate" in all discussions involving the term.
A port aggregate in Data ONTAP 10.0 is equivalent to a virtual interface in Data ONTAP 7G or earlier. Data ONTAP 10.0 has a different definition for virtual interface; see “Virtual Interface Concepts” for details.
The following restrictions apply to port aggregates:
A port that is already a member of a port aggregate cannot be added to another port aggregate.
All ports in a port aggregate must have the same port role (data or management).
Cluster ports cannot be aggregated together.
A port to which a virtual interface is already bound cannot be added to a port aggregate.
A port that already has an assigned failover role cannot be added to a port aggregate.
All ports in a port aggregate must be physically located on the same node.