HP-UX VLAN Administrator's Guide, February 2007

• HP-UX VLANs do not require you to rewrite applications, install new hardware, or recable.
They are also compatible with HP Serviceguard as well as with HP online addition and
replacement (OLAR) capabilities.
• You can create, modify, and delete HP-UX VLANs without rebooting the system.
• HP-UX VLANs are interoperable with non-VLAN-aware devices, such as servers or bridges,
that do not transmit or receive tagged packets.
Benefits
• Bandwidth preservation: A well-designed VLAN helps restrict broadcast and multicast
traffic to only those stations listening to and responding to the traffic related to that VLAN.
Switches no longer need to classify and tag traffic. Rather they can focus on forwarding
packets. The network and computing resources of nonparticipating stations are unaffected,
thus improving performance.
• Manageability: Moves, additions, and changes to network topology do not require physical
changes to network topology. User mobility is much simpler because of the dynamic nature
of VLANs. Physically dispersed work groups can be logically connected within the same
broadcast domain to appear as if they are on the same physical LAN. A single physical link
can simultaneously serve several IP subnets when subnet-based VLANs are configured on
that link. End stations using VLANs can offer rudimentary Class of Service (CoS) locally by
prioritizing traffic for certain activities.
• Enhanced security: You can construct different security domains to provide various levels
of security in the network, because the network design is more flexible than that of traditional
LANs. You can logically connect work groups requiring increased security within the same
broadcast domain and isolate the broadcast traffic within the secure group.
Administrative Methods for Managing HP-UX VLANs
Three methods are available for configuring and administering HP-UX VLANs on HP-UX servers.
HP recommends that you use the HP System Management Homepage (HP SMH) method
whenever possible and use the nwmgr command in cases that warrant using a CLI, especially
with script formatted output.
• Use the HP (System Management Homepage (HP SMH)
HP System Management Homepage (HP SMH) is the system administration tool for
managing HP-UX 11i Version 3. HP SMH provides web-based system management
functionality, at-a-glance monitoring of system component health, and consolidated log
viewing. HP SMH also provides a terminal user interfaces (TUI).
NOTE: As of this release, HP SMH replaces System Administration Manager (SAM).
Changes made using HP SMH are effective immediately, do not require a reboot to take
effect, and are persistent across reboots.
For information on configuring and administering HP-UX VLANs with HP SMH, see
Chapter 2 (page 29)
For additional information on HP SMH, see the HP-UX 11i Version 3 HP-UX System
Administrator's Guide: Overview, the HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Configuration
Management, and smh(1M).
• Use the nwmgr Command
As of this release, a new command, nwmgr, is provided for managing all LAN-based network
interfaces. It supersedes the lanadmin, lanscan, and linkloop commands, which are
deprecated in this release, and will be obsoleted in a future HP-UX release.
Changes made using nwmgr are effective immediately and (in contrast to the lanadmin)
command) can be made persistent across reboots.
24 Introduction