HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Release Notes (5900-2483, September 2012)

2 HP APA Overview for HP-UX 11i v2
This chapter provides information about the HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23.50) September 2012 release
of HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) and LAN Monitor software.
This release of HP APA now supports HP Serviceguard version A.11.17 or later. HP Serviceguard
can use both link aggregates and failover groups (LAN_MONITOR mode). In addition, this release
also supports Nortel Split Multi-Link Trunking (SMLT) technology and improved HP Integrity virtual
machine support.
Auto Port Aggregation
HP APA is a software product that creates link aggregates, often called "trunks," which provide a
logical grouping of two or more physical ports into a single "Fat-Pipe." Network traffic is load
balanced across all of the links in the aggregation, which allows you to build large bandwidth
logical links into the server that are highly available and completely transparent to the client and
server applications.
In addition, HP APA provides automatic link failure detection and recovery, and optional support
for load balancing of network traffic across all of the links in the aggregation.
HP APA supports Serviceguard.
For more information, see the HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Administrator's Guide for HP-UX
11i v1 and 11i v2. To locate this document, go to the www.hp.com/go/hpux-networking-docs
product page. On this page, select HP-UX Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Software.
Failover Group
HP APA supports the creation of failover groups (link aggregates in LAN_MONITOR mode),
providing a failover capability for links. In the event of a link failure, LAN Monitor automatically
migrates traffic to an available, standby link (port or link aggregate) in the failover group.
Known Problems Fixed in This Version
Table 2 (page 10) lists the known problem fixed in this release of HP APA B.11.23.50
Table 2 Fixes in the HP APA B.11.23.50 Release
DescriptionDefect ID
Support for host name change with APA/LM configuration.QXCR1001226863
If the user changes the hostname after a Fail-over-Group (FoG) is created then APA throws an error,
stating a corrupt binary file, when APA LM services are stopped or started. The same error is seen
when a system comes up after a reboot. This also prevents APA from bringing up FoG after a
reboot affecting APA functioning as configured. LACP/PAGP configurations are not affected.
This fix relaxes the hostname check against what is stored in APA LM binary configuration file.
With this fix user is allowed to change the hostname (Usually HPUX Ignite restore/recovery requires
to change the hostname temporarily) without affecting APA functionality.
Known Problems Fixed in Previous Version
Table 3 Fixes in the HP APA B.11.23.40.1 Release
DescriptionDefect ID
The APA/LM statistics are not updated for 90 seconds after fail-back occurs.QXCR1001128905
10 HP APA Overview for HP-UX 11i v2