Dynamic Adapter Membership

Prior to AIX 5L Version 5.2 with the 5200-03 Recommended Maintenance package, in order to add or remove an adapter from an EtherChannel, its interface first had to be detached, temporarily interrupting all user traffic. To overcome this limitation, Dynamic Adapter Membership (DAM) was added in AIX 5L Version 5.2 with the 5200-03 Recommended Maintenance package.

It allows adapters to be added or removed from an EtherChannel without having to disrupt any user connections. A backup adapter can also be added or removed; an EtherChannel can be initially created without a backup adapter, and one can be added at a later date if the need arises.

Not only can adapters be added or removed without disrupting user connections, it is also possible to modify most of the EtherChannel attributes at runtime. For example, you may begin using the "ping" feature of Network Interface Backup while the EtherChannel is in use, or change the remote host being pinged at any point.

You can also turn a regular EtherChannel into an IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation (or the other way around), allowing users to experiment with this feature without having to remove and recreate the EtherChannel.

Furthermore, with DAM, you may choose to create a one-adapter EtherChannel. A one-adapter EtherChannel behaves exactly like a regular adapter; however, should this adapter ever fail, it is possible to replace it at runtime without ever losing connectivity. To accomplish this, you add a temporary adapter to the EtherChannel, remove the defective adapter from the EtherChannel, replace the defective adapter with a working one using Hot Plug, add the new adapter to the EtherChannel, and then remove the temporary adapter. During this process you never notice a loss in connectivity. If the adapter had been working as a standalone adapter, however, it must be detached before being removed using Hot Plug, and during that time any traffic going over it is lost.