Creating a second-level vif on a single storage system

Assumptions made in this procedure

The following procedure assumes that you want to create a second-level vif, called vif_name, on a single storage system with two multimode vifs, called vif_name1 and vif_name2. The vif_name1vif is composed of two physical interfaces, if1 and if2, and vif_name2 is composed of two physical interfaces, if3 and if4.

By default, IP-based load balancing will be used for the multimode vifs created in this procedure.

Prerequisites

You need to meet the following prerequisites to create a second-level vif:

Identify or install a switch that supports link aggregation over multiple port connections in your network, configured according to your switch vendor's instructions.
Decide on a case-sensitive name for each vif that meets the following criteria:
- It must begin with a letter.
- It must not contain a space.
- It must not contain more than 15 characters.
- It must not already be in use for a vif.
Decide on a list of the interfaces you want the vif to consist of.
Configure all interfaces that will be included in the vif to be down using the ifconfig command.

Creating a second-level vif on a single storage system

To create a second-level vif on a single storage system, complete the following steps.

Note
The operation performed using the vif create command is not persistent across reboots unless the command is added to the /etc/rc file.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following commands to create two multimode interfaces: vif create multi -b {rr\|mac\|ip} vif_name1 if1 if2 vif create multi -b {rr\|mac\|ip} vif_name2 if3 if4 `-b` specifies the type of load-balancing method. `rr`--Round robin `mac`--MAC-address based `ip`--IP-address based (default) Note You must ensure that all interfaces to be included in the vif are configured down. You can use the `ifconfig` command to configure an interface down.
2	Enter the following command to create a single-mode interface from the multimode interfaces: vif create single vif_name vif_name1 vif_name2

Step

Action

Enter the following commands to create two multimode interfaces:

vif create multi -b {rr|mac|ip} vif_name1 if1 if2

vif create multi -b {rr|mac|ip} vif_name2 if3 if4

-b specifies the type of load-balancing method.

rr--Round robin
mac--MAC-address based
ip--IP-address based (default)
Note
You must ensure that all interfaces to be included in the vif are configured down. You can use the ifconfig command to configure an interface down.

Enter the following command to create a single-mode interface from the multimode interfaces:

vif create single vif_name vif_name1 vif_name2

Example of creating a second-level vif on a single storage system

The following commands create the second-level vif shown in Example of a second-level vif on a single storage system. In this example, IP-based load- balancing is used for the multimode vifs.

vif create multi Firstlev1 e0 e1

vif create multi Firstlev2 e2 e3

vif create single Secondlev Firstlev1 Firstlev2