Solaris IP network multipathing
IPMP, or IP network multipathing, is a facility provided by the Solaris Operating System to provide fault-tolerance and load balancing with network interface cards. With IPMP, two or more NICs are dedicated for each network to which the host connects. One of these interfaces is marked as the primary, and the remainder are secondaries. In the event of a failure of the primary interface, the system will automatically switch to using the secondary interface instead.
Each NIC still has its own IP address on the network. In addition, IPMP maintains a virtual IP address (VIP). Other systems wishing to connect to the server should use the VIP.
IPMP load balancing feature increases the machine's bandwidth by using spreading the load between all the cards in the same IPMP group.
in.mpathd is the daemon responsible for IPMP functionality.
See also
External links
- Enterprise Networking Article, February 2, 2006
- Sun Solaris IPMP configuration guide (requires registration)
- IPMP section from Sun Solaris 10 System Administration Guide
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