How vifs work in Data ONTAP

A virtual interface (vif) is a feature in Data ONTAP that implements link aggregation on your storage system. Vifs provide a mechanism to group together multiple network interfaces (links) into one logical interface (aggregate). After a vif is created, it is indistinguishable from a physical network interface.

The following figure shows four separate network interfaces, e3a, e3b, e3c, and e3d, before they are grouped into a vif.

The following figure shows the four network interfaces grouped into a single vif called Trunk1.

Different vendors refer to vifs by the following terms:

•	Virtual aggregations

•	Link aggregations

•

Trunks

•	EtherChannel

Vifs provide several advantages over individual network interfaces:

•	Higher throughput

Multiple interfaces work as one interface.

•	Fault tolerance

If one interface in a vif goes down, your storage system stays connected to the network by using the other interfaces.

•	No single point of failure

If the physical interfaces in a vif are connected to multiple switches and a switch goes down, your storage system stays connected to the network through the other switches.