Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) Simplification : No dedicated control channel adapter

Answer

► What is Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) Simplification?

The SEA simplification feature allows SEA to configure in High Availability (HA) without a dedicated control channel adapter. When configuring SEA in HA mode with a control channel adapter, mistakes can be made by mismatching the control channel adapter or by adding a vlan that is already added on a Virtual Ethernet Adapter.  These mistakes can cause network outages. This feature avoids these mistakes by matching partners using a dedicated management vlan 4095, which the user cannot configure. The vlan 4095 is not user configurable. The hypervisor activates it during the SEA HA configuration phase. The SEA HA partners are identified by matching their PVID (Port VLAN ID). The SEA HA configuration uses a broadcast-based discovery protocol to identify the HA partner. After the partner is identified, the discovery heartbeat is exchanged in addition to the control channel heartbeat to monitor the partner's existence.

This feature is available for both failover and sharing modes. The option to configure SEA in HA mode with a dedicated control channel adapter remains available.

► What is the prerequisite to use this feature?

- VIOS level 2.2.3.0 and higher.

- System firmware level 7.8 and higher.

- Not supported on model MMB and MHB irrespective of VIOS and system firmware level.

► How to use this feature?

To use this feature, create SEA without specifying the ctl_chan attribute.

e.g. mkvdev -sea ent11 -vadapter ent3 -default ent3 -defaultid 4 -attr ha_mode=auto

Note: The default ID must be the same as the default adapter's PVID.

► How does entstat/netstat output look like?

Author: Darshan Patel
Platform: VIO Server on Power
Feedback: aix_feedback@wwpdl.vnet.ibm.com