To configure a shared Ethernet
adapter (SEA) with Hardware Management Console versions
before 7, Release 3.4.2, you must use the Virtual I/O Server command-line
interface.
In SEA, quality
of service (QoS) is provided per SEA thread. By default, SEA runs
in thread mode with seven threads. When SEA receives traffic, it routes
the traffic to a thread, based on source and destination information.
If the QoS mode is enabled, each thread further queues the traffic,
based on the VLAN tag priority, to the appropriate priority queue
associated with the selected thread. Queued traffic for a particular
thread is serviced in the order of higher to lower priority. All threads
handle all priorities.
Note: SEA QoS does not assure bandwidth for
a particular priority. The packets are prioritized by each thread
locally, not across the multiple SEA threads globally.
The
SEA QoS is effective when all SEA threads are handling traffic, such
that when an SEA thread is scheduled to run, it services higher priority
traffic before servicing the lower priority traffic. An SEA QoS is
not effective when the higher and lower priority traffic is spread
across different threads.
Before you can configure an SEA, you
must first create the virtual Ethernet trunk adapter by using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).
You can configure an SEA with the Virtual I/O Server command-line
interface.
- Verify that the virtual Ethernet trunk adapter is available
by running the following command:
lsdev -virtual
- Identify the appropriate physical Ethernet adapter that
is used to create the SEA by running the following command:
lsdev -type adapter
Notes: - Ensure that TCP/IP is not configured on the interface for the
physical Ethernet adapter. If TCP/IP is configured, the mkvdev command
in the next step fails.
- You can also use a Link Aggregation, or Etherchannel, device as the SEA.
- If you plan to use the Host Ethernet Adapter or Integrated
Virtual Ethernet with the SEA, ensure that you use the Logical Host
Ethernet adapter to create the SEA.
- Configure an SEA by running the following command:
mkvdev -sea target_device -vadapter virtual_ethernet_adapters \
-default DefaultVirtualEthernetAdapter -defaultid SEADefaultPVID
Where: - DefaultVirtualEthernetAdapter
- The default virtual Ethernet adapter used to handle untagged packets.
If you have only one virtual Ethernet adapter for this logical partition,
use it as the default.
- SEADefaultPVID
- The PVID associated with your default virtual Ethernet adapter.
- target_device
- The physical adapter that is being used as part of the SEA device.
- virtual_ethernet_adapters
- The comma-separated list of the virtual Ethernet
adapters that are used as a part of the SEA device.
For example:
- Verify that the SEA was created by running the following
command:
lsdev -virtual
- Do you plan to access the Virtual I/O Server from the network
with the physical device used to create the SEA?
- Yes: Go to step 6.
- No: You are finished with this procedure and can skip the
remaining steps.
- Do you plan to set bandwidth apportioning
by defining a quality of service (QoS)?
- Yes: Go to step 11 to
enable the SEA device to prioritize traffic.
- No: Go to step 9 to configure
a TCP/IP connection.
- Do you plan to define IP addresses on any
VLANs other than the VLAN specified by the PVID of the SEA?
- Yes: Go to step 8 to create VLAN
pseudo-devices.
- No: Go to step 9 to configure
a TCP/IP connection.
- To configure VLAN pseudo-devices, complete
the following steps:
- Create a VLAN pseudo-device on the SEA by running the
following command:
mkvdev -vlan TargetAdapter -tagid TagID
Where: - TargetAdapter is the SEA.
- TagID is the VLAN ID that you defined when you created
the virtual Ethernet adapter associated with the SEA.
For example, to create a VLAN pseudo-device using
the SEA ent3 that you created with a VLAN ID of 1,
type the following command: mkvdev -vlan ent3 -tagid 1
- Verify that the VLAN pseudo-device was created by running
the following command:
lsdev -virtual
- Repeat this step for any additional VLAN pseudo-devices
that you need.
- Run the following command to configure
the first TCP/IP connection. The first connection must
be on the same VLAN and logical subnet as the default gateway.
mktcpip -hostname Hostname -inetaddr Address -interface Interface -netmask \
SubnetMask -gateway Gateway -nsrvaddr NameServerAddress -nsrvdomain Domain
Where: - Hostname is the host name of the Virtual I/O Server
- Address is the IP address that you want to
use for the TCP/IP connection
- Interface is the interface that is associated
with either the SEA device or a VLAN pseudo-device. For example, if
the SEA device is ent3, the associated interface is en3.
- Subnetmask is the subnet mask address for your
subnet.
- Gateway is the gateway address for your subnet.
- NameServerAddress is the address of your domain
name server.
- Domain is the name of your domain.
If you do not have more VLANs, then you are finished with this
procedure and can skip the remaining steps.
- Run the following command to configure more
TCP/IP connections:
chdev -dev interface -perm -attr netaddr=IPaddress netmask=netmask
state=up
While using this command, enter the interface
(enX) associated with either the SEA device or the VLAN pseudo-device.
- Enable the SEA device to prioritize traffic. Client
logical partitions must insert a VLAN priority value in their VLAN
header. For AIX® clients, a VLAN pseudo-device
must be created over the Virtual I/O Ethernet adapter, and the VLAN
priority attribute must be set (the default value is 0). Do the following
steps to enable traffic prioritization on an AIX client:
Note: - While configuring QoS on the VLAN devices, you can also configure
the QoS priority for a virtual Ethernet adapter by using the Hardware Management Console.
- You can also configure VLANs on Linux logical partitions.
For more information, see the documentation for the Linux operating system.
- Set the SEA qos_mode attribute to either strict or loose
mode. Use one of the following commands: chdev -dev <SEA
device name> -attr qos_mode=strict or chdev -dev <SEA
device name> -attr qos_mode=loose. For more
information about the modes, see SEA.
- From the HMC, create a Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter
for the AIX client
with all of the tagged VLANs that are required (specified in the Additional
VLAN ID list). Packets that are sent over the default
VLAN ID (specified in the Adapter ID or Virtual
LAN ID field) are not tagged as VLAN; therefore, a VLAN
priority value cannot be assigned to them.
- On the AIX client,
run the smitty vlan command.
- Select Add a VLAN.
- Select the name of the Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter
created in step 1.
- In the VLAN Tag ID attribute, specify one of the tagged
VLANs that are configured on the Virtual I/O Ethernet adapter that
you created in step 1.
- Specify an attribute value (0 - 7) in the VLAN Priority
attribute, which corresponds to the importance the VIOS will give
to the traffic sent over that VLAN pseudo-device.
- Configure the interface over the VLAN pseudo-device
created in step 6.
Traffic sent over the interface created in step 7 will be tagged
as VLAN and its VLAN header will have the VLAN priority value specified
in step 6. When this traffic is bridged by a SEA that has been enabled
for bandwidth apportioning, the VLAN priority value is used to determine
how quickly it should be sent in relation to other packets at different
priorities.
The Shared Ethernet Adapter is now configured.
After you configure the TCP/IP connections for the virtual adapters
on the client logical partitions using the client logical partitions'
operating systems, those logical partitions can communicate with the
external network.
