HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Release Notes for HP-UX 11i v1 and v2 December 2005

Known Problems with Switches
• HP ProCurve Switches
When disabling Cisco's Fast Ether Channel protocol on the HP 9000 server, the HP ProCurve switches
block that particular port from further use.
Corrective Action: In order to use the network physical port on the HP 9000 server, physically move
the connection from the server to the switch to another non-Cisco Fast EtherChannel port on the switch.
• Cisco Catalyst 5000 Switches
• Turning off Cisco's Fast Ether Channel protocol on one network physical port on the HP 9000
server might cause the entire link aggregate (the port it is associated with) to be deconfigured.
Corrective Action: Reconfigure the switch; do not include the port in the link aggregate being
configured. See the appropriate switch documentation for information on how to reconfigure link
aggregates.
The Catalyst 5000 switch only allows two- or four-port link aggregates. See the Cisco Catalyst
5000 Configuration Guide for information about these limitations.
• When interfacing a HSC 100Base-TX or PCI 4port 100Base-TX to a Cisco Catalyst 5000 switch
(with firmware version 4.5(4)) and ports in Desirable Mode connected to an HP server with ports
running HP APA, the link aggregations might go up and down repeatedly.
Corrective Action: Install patch PHNE_23465 or its superseding patch.
• 3Com SuperStack II Switches
To interoperate with the switch, disable the Trunk Control Message Protocol (TCMP) on all of the ports
that are being used with HP Integrity servers.
Compatibility Information and Installation Requirements
This section describes the compatibility information and installation requirements for this release.
First-time Installation
For an initial HP APA installation, two files, hp_apaconf and hp_apaportconf are placed in
/etc/rc.config.d.
The MANUAL default mode will be used.
Configuration File Changes
The configuration file changes for this release are as follows:
• Adds an optional cost parameter to the PRIMARY and STANDBY declarations in the
/etc/lanmon/lanconfig.ascii file. You can add the cost parameter after the port priority; it
must be preceded by a colon (:).
• Adds the HP_APA_LACP_SYSTEM_ID_MODE parameter to the /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf
file. Valid values are: FIRST_APA_PORT and FIRST_LACP_PORT.
• Enables the use of an optional HP_APA_USE_SYSLOG parameter in the
/etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf file. Valid values are 0 (to disable) and 1 (to enable). The default
value is 0.
Operating System and Version Compatibility
This release is specific for HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11).
Hardware Requirements
This version of HP APA runs on HP 9000 servers with the HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11) operating system.
HP APA supports Cisco's FastEtherChannel (PAgP) protocol, the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (IEEE
802.3ad), or manual trunking mechanisms.
6 Release Notes for HP-UX 11i v1