6.0 HP X9320 Network Storage System Administrator Guide (AW542-96009, December 2011)

If you identify a VIF, the management console does not automatically query the node. If the VIF
will be used only as a standby network interface in an automated failover setup, the management
console will query the node the first time a network is failed over to the VIF. Otherwise, you must
enter the VIF’s IP address and netmask manually in the configuration database (see “Setting network
interface options in the configuration database” (page 73)). The management console does not
require a MAC address for a VIF.
If you created a user network interface for X9000 client traffic, you will need to prefer the network
for the X9000 clients that will use the network (see “Preferring network interfaces” (page 73)).
Setting network interface options in the configuration database
To make a VIF usable, execute the following command to specify the IP address and netmask for
the VIF. You can also use this command to modify certain ifconfig options for a network.
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_nic -c -n IFNAME -h HOSTNAME [-I IPADDR] [-M NETMASK]
[-B BCASTADDR] [-T MTU]
For example, to set netmask 255.255.0.0 and broadcast address 10.0.0.4 for interface eth3 on
file serving node s4.hp.com:
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_nic -c -n eth3 -h s4.hp.com -M 255.255.0.0 -B 10.0.0.4
Preferring network interfaces
After creating a user network interface for file serving nodes or X9000 clients, you will need to
prefer the interface for those nodes and clients. (It is not necessary to prefer a network interface
for NFS or CIFS clients, because they can select the correct user network interface at mount time.)
A network interface preference is executed immediately on file serving nodes. For X9000 clients,
the preference intention is stored on the management console. When X9000 Software services
start on a client, the client queries the management console for the network interface that has been
preferred for it and then begins to use that interface. If the services are already running on X9000
clients when you prefer a network interface, you can force clients to query the management console
by executing the command ibrix_lwhost --a on the client or by rebooting the client.
Preferring a network interface for a file serving node or Linux X9000 client
The first command prefers a network interface for a File Server Node; the second command prefers
a network interface for a client.
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_server -n -h SRCHOST -A DESTHOST/IFNAME
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_client -n -h SRCHOST -A DESTHOST/IFNAME
Execute this command once for each destination host that the file serving node or X9000 client
should contact using the specified network interface (IFNAME). For example, to prefer network
interface eth3 for traffic from file serving node s1.hp.com to file serving node s2.hp.com:
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_server -n -h s1.hp.com -A s2.hp.com/eth3
Preferring a network interface for a hostgroup
You can prefer an interface for multiple X9000 clients at one time by specifying a hostgroup. To
prefer a user network interface for all X9000 clients, specify the clients hostgroup. After preferring
a network interface for a hostgroup, you can locally override the preference on individual X9000
clients with the command ibrix_lwhost.
To prefer a network interface for a hostgroup, use the following command:
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_hostgroup -n -g HOSTGROUP -A DESTHOST/IFNAME
The destination host (DESTHOST) cannot be a hostgroup. For example, to prefer network interface
eth3 for traffic from all X9000 clients (the clients hostgroup) to file serving node s2.hp.com:
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_hostgroup -n -g clients -A s2.hp.com/eth3
Maintaining networks 73