Working with qeth devices

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 LPAR mode z/VM guest

Typical tasks that you need to perform when working with qeth devices include creating group devices, finding out the type of a network adapter, and setting a device online or offline.

About this task

Attention: Use sysfs attributes for dynamic testing of configuration settings. For persistent configuration in a production system, use one of the following options:

YaST
yast2
The qeth_configure command. For more details about the qeth_configure command, see the man page.
The chzdev command.

YaST creates a udev configuration file called /etc/udev/rules.d/xx-qeth-0.0.xxxx.rules. Additionally, cross-platform network configuration parameters are defined in /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-<if_name>

The chzdev command with the -p option creates udev rules of the same form as YaST. yast2 and qeth_configure use the chzdev mechanism and produce the same udev rules.

Table 1 and Table 3 serve as both a task overview and a summary of the attributes and the possible values you can write to them. Underlined values are defaults.

Not all attributes are applicable to each device. Some attributes apply only to HiperSockets or only to OSA-Express CHPIDs in QDIO mode, other attributes are applicable to IPv4 interfaces only. See the task descriptions for the applicability of each attribute.

Table 1. qeth tasks and attributes common to layer2 and layer3
Task	Corresponding attributes	Possible attribute values
Enabling a qeth device	group	n/a
Setting the layer2 attribute	layer2	0 or 1, see Layer 2 and layer 3¹
Using priority queueing	priority_queueing	prio_queueing_vlan prio_queueing_skb prio_queueing_prec prio_queueing_tos no_prio_queueing no_prio_queueing:0 no_prio_queueing:1 no_prio_queueing:2 no_prio_queueing:3
Specifying the number of inbound buffers	buffer_count	integer in the range 8 -128. The default is 64 for OSA devices and 128 for HiperSockets devices
Specifying the relative port number	portno	integer, either 0 or 1, the default is 0
Finding out the type of your network adapter	card_type	n/a, read-only
Setting a device online or offline	online	0 or 1
Finding out the interface name of a qeth group device	if_name	n/a, read-only
Finding out the bus ID of a qeth interface	none	n/a
Activating an interface	none	n/a
Deactivating an interface	none	n/a
Recovering a device	recover	1
Configuring the receive checksum offload feature	none	n/a
Configuring the transmit checksum offload feature	none	n/a
Isolating data connections	isolation	none, drop, forward
Displaying and resetting QETH performance statistics	performance_stats	0 or 1
Capturing a hardware trace	hw_trap	arm disarm
Enabling and disabling TCP segmentation offload	none	n/a
¹A value of -1 means that the layer has not been set and that the default layer setting is used when the device is set online.

Table 2. qeth functions and attributes in layer 2 mode
Function	Corresponding attributes	Possible attribute values
Configuring a network device as a member of a Linux bridge	bridge_role bridge_state bridge_hostnotify	primary, secondary, none active, standby, inactive 0 or 1
Advanced packet-handling configuration	vnicc/bridge_invisible vnicc/flooding vnicc/learning vnicc/mcast_flooding vnicc/rx_bcast vnicc/takeover_learning vnicc/takeover_setvmac vnicc/learning_timeout	0 or 1 0 or 1 0 or 1 0 or 1 0 or 1 0 or 1 0 or 1 integer in the range 60 - 86400 the default is 600

Table 3. qeth tasks and attributes in layer 3 mode
Task	Corresponding attributes	Possible attribute values
Setting up a Linux router	route4 route6	primary_router secondary_router primary_connector secondary_connector multicast_router no_router
Faking broadcast capability	fake_broadcast ¹	0 or 1
Taking over IP addresses	ipa_takeover/enable	0 or 1 or toggle
	ipa_takeover/add4 ipa_takeover/add6 ipa_takeover/del4 ipa_takeover/del6	IPv4 or IPv6 IP address and mask bits
	ipa_takeover/invert4 ipa_takeover/invert6	0 or 1 or toggle
Configuring a device for proxy ARP	rxip/add4 rxip/del4	IPv4 IP address
Configuring a device for NDP proxy	rxip/add6 rxip/del6	IPv6 IP address
Configuring a device for virtual IP address (VIPA)	vipa/add4 vipa/add6 vipa/del4 vipa/del6	IPv4 or IPv6 IP address
Configuring a HiperSockets device for AF_IUCV addressing	hsuid	1 to 8 characters
Setting up a HiperSockets network traffic analyzer	sniffer	0 or 1
¹ not valid for HiperSockets

Tip: Use the qethconf command instead of using the attributes for IPA, proxy ARP, and VIPA directly (see qethconf - Configure qeth devices). In YaST, you can use "IPA Takeover".

sysfs provides multiple paths through which you can access the qeth group device attributes. For example, if a device with bus ID 0.0.a100 corresponds to interface eth0:

/sys/bus/ccwgroup/drivers/qeth/0.0.a100
/sys/bus/ccwgroup/devices/0.0.a100
/sys/devices/qeth/0.0.a100
/sys/class/net/eth0/device

all lead to the attributes for the same device. For example, the following commands are all equivalent and return the same value:

# cat /sys/bus/ccwgroup/drivers/qeth/0.0.a100/if_name
eth0
# cat /sys/bus/ccwgroup/devices/0.0.a100/if_name
eth0
# cat /sys/devices/qeth/0.0.a100/if_name
eth0
# cat /sys/class/net/eth0/device/if_name
eth0

The path through /sys/class/net becomes available when the device is first set online and the interface is created. The path persists until the device is ungrouped. Furthermore, it might lead to a different device if the assignment of interface names changes after rebooting or when devices are ungrouped and new group devices created.

Tips:

Work through one of the paths that are based on the device bus-ID.
Using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5, you set qeth attributes in YaST. YaST, in turn, creates a udev configuration file called /etc/udev/rules.d/xx-qeth-0.0.xxxx.rules. Additionally, cross-platform network configuration parameters are defined in /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-<if_name>.

The following sections describe the tasks in detail.