HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Release Notes for HP-UX 11i v1 and v2 September 2006

2 HP APA Overview for HP-UX 11i v2
This chapter provides information about the HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23.20) September 2006 release of HP Auto
Port Aggregation (APA) and LAN Monitor software.
This release of HP APA now supports the aggregation of eight physical ports into a link aggregate and
IPv6 addressing for link aggregates and LAN Monitor failover groups.
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 with certain conditions. See the HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Support
Guide for more information.
LAN Monitor
The LAN Monitor mode of HP APA provides a failover capability and configuration tools similar to
Serviceguard; however, LAN Monitor does not support HP Serviceguard. In the event of link failure, LAN
Monitor automatically migrates the data flow from the primary link to one of the standby links in the
failover group.
New Features in This Release
The B.11.23.20 version of HP APA:
• Supports the creation of Virtual LANs (VLANs) over link aggregates and failover groups. This requires
LAN Cumulative patch PHNE_34474.
• Supports proactive failover for LAN Monitor failover groups. Proactive failover is a cost-based failover
policy in which each port in a failover group is assigned a cost. With this policy, the active port of a
failover group is always the link that is the most efficient at carrying traffic. Efficiency is measured
in terms of normalized port cost, which is the assigned port cost divided by the port's current link
speed. The lower the normalized port cost, the higher the efficiency.
See the HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Support Guide (HP Part Number J4240-90035) for more information
on the new features and how to use them.
Known Problems Fixed in This Version
Table 2.1 lists the known problems and fixes in this release of HP APA B.11.23.20.
Table 2-1 Fixes in the HP APA B.11.23.20 Release
DescriptionDefect ID
APA does not support VLANs over link aggregates and failover groups.CR: JAGag01289
SR: 8606443647
A LAN Monitor failover group waits for all links in the current active link aggregate to go
down before failing over.
CR: JAGaf57312
SR: 8606397330
In HP-APA B.11.23.10, LAN Monitor failover groups consisting of FDDI and Token Ring ports
stop working. The FDDI ports might join and leave the failover group continually. Issuing a
ping command to a Token Ring failover group fails.
CR: JAGag05584
SR: 8606448328
Under low memory conditions, when a port in a link aggregate goes down, MAC address
changes on the remaining up ports fail and traffic stops on the link aggregate.
CR: JAGag02152
SR: 8606444605
The lanapplyconf command dumps core if the NODE_NAME value in the
/etc/lanmon/lanconfig.ascii file is different from the host name.
CR: JAGaf82153
SR: 8606422329
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