5.6.x HP X9000 Series Network Storage System Installation Guide (TA768-96056, December 2011)
Bonding modes for file serving nodes
The recommended file server bonding for X9720 configurations is mode=1 (that is, active-backup).
Previously, the advised bonding mode was mode=6, or active-alb. However, this mode may cause
problems and sporadic failures in some X9720 configurations. In addition, there is likely no
performance benefit to using this mode in the X9720 configuration. Therefore, it is recommended
that users configure their systems to be mode=1, which is also known as active-backup. To do this,
modify the /etc/modprobe.conf file on each file serving host. See “Sample files and command
output” (page 79) for a sample /etc/modprobe.conf file with the bonding mode defined.
The file server blades at the Linux OS level should not be configured for LACP/802.3ad mode
because the Virtual Connect does not support this at the blade level, only the chassis uplinks. Thus
the file serving nodes should not be internally configured with LACP or mode=4 bonding.
File server HWADDR settings
The safest setting for the Linux file server blades is to lock down the Ethernet network interfaces to
specific hardware addresses. This helps avoid misalignment in the Ethernet network interfaces and
networks. The recommendation for /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ files is as follows:
• Explicitly set HWADDR in the ifcfg-eth* files
• Do not set HWADDR in ifcfg-bond* files
The following commands can be used to extract the onboard HWADDR settings in the same order
as should be assigned (NIC1/eth0, NIC2/eth1, and so on). Use grep commands to check the
settings (hpasmcli may require a restart of the hp-health service):
# hpasmcli -s "show server" | grep NIC
Embedded NICs : 8
NIC1 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:18
NIC2 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:1c
NIC3 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:19
NIC4 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:1d
NIC5 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:1a
NIC6 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:1e
NIC7 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:1b
NIC8 MAC: 78:e7:d1:57:53:1f
# cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
# grep HWADDR ifcfg-eth*
ifcfg-eth0:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:18
ifcfg-eth1:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:1C
ifcfg-eth2:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:19
ifcfg-eth3:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:1D
ifcfg-eth4:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:1A
ifcfg-eth5:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:1E
ifcfg-eth6:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:1B
ifcfg-eth7:HWADDR=78:E7:D1:57:53:1F
# grep HWADDR ifcfg-bond*
When the interfaces to HWADDR are locked down, a change of the blade hardware (motherboard
or mezzanine NICs) will modify the HWADDR. The administrator should boot into single user mode
and reset the HWADDR settings before starting the X9000 Software to avoid network misalignment
when replacing these components.
Jumbo Frame support
Jumbo Frames are not supported.
VLAN tagging
VLAN tagging is not natively supported by the X9720 system.
78 Network best practices for X9720 systems