Using APA to Build a Screaming Fast Network Server Connection for HP-UX 11i v2 and v3

Using APA to Build a Screaming Fast Network Server Connection
SISL -- Page 1 --
IP Address
HP 9000 w/APA
SWITCH
ROUTER
Intranet
8Gb
Introduction
The purpose of this white paper is to present network managers with a high level
overview of HP’s Auto-Port Aggregation Software (APA) for the HP
9000. Network Managers concerned with the increasing demand for network
bandwidth, network availability, and quick fault isolation will learn how
HP’s APA software solves these problems with minimal IT support costs.
APA is a software product designed to manage both Fast and Gigabit
Ethernet IEEE 802.3 compliant networks as Link Aggregates. Link
Aggregates provide a logical grouping of 2 or more physical ports into a
single “Fat-Pipe” with two primary features: automatic link failure
detection and recovery as well as optional support for load balancing of
network traffic across all of the links in the aggregation. This allows
Network Managers to build large bandwidth “logical” links into the server
that are highly available and completely transparent to the clients and
server applications.
APA on HP-UX 11.0 supports Fast and Gigabit Ethernet with automatic
fault detection and recovery as well as load balancing of network traffic,
while APA on HP-UX 10.20 only supports the automatic link failure
detection and recovery feature.
FDDI and Token Ring links can also be configured as Link Aggregates
on both HP-UX 10.20 and 11.0, but with no load balancing of network
traffic. This enables network managers to use APA throughout their
environment to provide Single System High Availability for all
networking components.
To summarize, APA offers network managers a comprehensive solution to create
screaming fast and highly available network server connections with minimal IT support
costs. APA enables this with four key benefits:
• Automatic link failure detection and recovery in case of network failures
• Scalable high performance link aggregates using Fast or Gigabit Ethernet and APA’s
efficient Load Balancing Algorithms
• Fault Management and Isolation with HP’s MIB Monitor and Nettl logging facilities.
• Lower IT costs with automated configuration and management tools using the IEEE
802.3ad standard and HP’s System Administration GUI (SAM)
When you combine APA with the superior performance and RAS capabilities of the
switch-like PCI architecture in the HP N and L class servers, you can truly provide a
leadership customer solution in terms of performance and availability.
Throughout this paper, these benefits will be highlighted with real world Typical
Customer Configurations, but first we’ll describe some Typical APA Applications, and the
details of the various APA Load Balancing Algorithms.