Network Administration

Describe hostname resolution as it applies to

storage appliance
Explain the limitations of using a filer as a
router
Manage interface parameters on a storage
appliance
Describe the physical interfaces used by the
filer
Create virtual interfaces ( VIFS) used by the
storage appliance

Objectives
/etc/hosts
A DNS server
A NIS server
Hostname Resolution
/etc/hosts
tis-coe-storage> rdfile /etc/hosts
#Auto-generated by setup Sat Jun 3 15:33:33 IST 2006
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.201.65.27 tis-coe-storage tis-coe-storage-e0a
# 0.0.0.0 tis-coe-storage-e0b
172.172.172.11 tis-coe-storage-e0c
155.155.155.2 tis-coe-storage-e0d
0.0.0.0 mailhost
tis-coe-storage>

Hostname Resolution
NIS Server

The NIS client service provides information on security-related parameters
such as hosts, user passwords, user groups and netgroups on a network.

NIS enables to maintain host information, hence there is no need to update
the /etc/hosts file on each storage appliance on the network.

The storage appliance can be a NIS client and can query NIS server for host
information, but it cannot be a NIS server.

If NIS is to be used as primary method for host resolution, it should be
specified ahead of other methods in /etc/nsswitch.conf file.
Hostname Resolution using NIS
DNS matches domain names to IP address and enables to centrally maintain host
information.
DNS is configured using options and commands
To make the configuration permanent, enter them in /etc/rc file.
The information command dns info, displays the status of the DNS resolver,a list of
DNS servers, the state of each DNS server, the default domain configured on the
storage appliance.
Options dns.domainname wipro_dns sets the DNS domain name to the wipro_dns
Options dns.enable on enables DNS
Hostname Resolution using DNS
The /etc/nsswitch.conf file lists the order in which a storage appliance searches
for a resolution

tis-coe-storage> rdfile /etc/nsswitch.conf
#Auto-generated by setup Sat Jun 3 15:33:33 IST 2006
hosts: files nis dns
passwd: files nis ldap
netgroup: files nis ldap
group: files nis ldap
shadow: files nis
tis-coe-storage>

Search Order for Resolution
Even though a storage appliance may have multiple network interfaces, it
does not function as a router for other network hosts.It however routes its
own packets.

To check the current routing table use netstat r command. The netstat
command displays network-related data structures
Netstat -r
default 10.201.65.1 UGS 5 101931 e0a
10.201.65/24 link#3 UC 0 0 e0a
10.201.65.1 0:11:5d:27:18:8a UHL 1 0 e0a
10.201.65.19 0:3:ba:e2:fd:90 UHL 0 40 e0a
10.201.65.21 0:3:ba:e2:de:ef UHL 0 0 e0a
10.201.65.22 0:3:ba:e2:fd:8f UHL 0 11 e0a
tis-coe-storage 0:a0:98:3:9b:66 UHL 0 21827 lo
10.201.65.255 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff UHL 0 10812 e0a


Storage Appliance is not a router
Modifying the route table
Route [-fn] add|delete [host|net]
destination [gateway metric]

Command Result
Route add default 10.10.10.1 1 Add a default route through 10.10.10.1
with metric(hop) 1
route add host client2 bldg_router 1 Adds a router to client2 through
bldg_router with a metric 1
Route delete 193.20.8.173 193.20.4.254 Deletes the route destination
193.20.8.173 connecting through
193.20.4.254
The filer supports these network types
Ethernet 10/100Base-T
Gigabit Ethernet
Jumbo frames supported in DATA ONTAP 6.x and later for filers with
Gigabit Ethernet Controller II interface

Interface names are based on
Network Type
Slot Number
Port Number, with Multiport interface
Interface Names
Network interface configuration parameters
IP address
Netmask and broadcast address
Mediatype,speed
Maximum transmission unit(MTU)
Flow control(Gigabit Ethernet II controller only)
Up or down state

Changes are not permanent until entered into the /etc/rc file

The ifconfig command
What is a VIF?
Aggregate multiple Ethernet links into a single logical channel between 2 devices
Upto 16 Ethernet interfaces can be grouped into a single logical interface
The advantages include, higher throughput, fault tolerance,protection against a
switch port becoming a single point of failure
Clients access a single virtual IP address
Etherchannel Trunks (Virtual Interfaces)
VIFs are also known as trunks,virtual aggregations,link aggregations, or
etherchannel virtual interfaces.

Trunks can be single mode or multimode.

In a single mode trunk,one interface is active while the other interface is
on standby.Failure signals the inactive interface to take over and maintain
the connection with the switch.
Single mode Trunk
In a multimode trunk, all interfaces are active providing greater
speed when multiple hosts access the storage appliance.


The switch determines how the load is balanced among the
interfaces and must therefore support manually configurable
trunking.

Multi-mode Trunk
Load balancing is supported for multimode VIFs only.Load
balancing ensures that all the interfaces of a multimode.There are
3 methods:
IP-based(default)
The outgoing interfaces selected based on the filer and client IP address
MAC-based
The outgoing interface selected on the basis of the filer and clients MAC address
Round-Robin
All the interfaces selected on a rotating basis

Load Balancing
vif create [single|multi] <vif_name> -b [rr|mac|ip]
[<interface_list>]
vif add <vif_name> <interface_list>
vif delete <vif_name> <interface_name>
vif destroy <vif_name>
vif {favor|nofavor} <interface>
vif status [<vif_name>]
vif stat <vif_name> [interval]

The named virtual interface is treated as a single
interface:
ifconfig vif_name
Virtual interface commands
How does a storage appliance resolve
hostnames?
What are the limitations of using a storage
appliance as a router?
What does the ifconfig command display?
What is virtual interface?

Topic Review