Originally posted by: wkuballa

I am running a VIO server on a P5system (9113-550). At present the VIO server has an etherchannel configured with four physical adapters. I want to remove two of these adapters from the VIO partition.

Reading various online documentation, I thought I can do this without taking down the etherchannel as of AIX 5.2 and my VIO reports:

1. oslevel

5.3.0.0
#

However, I can't figure out how to do this. The smitty screen does not let me modify the "Etherchannel / Link Aggregation Adapters" field.

What am I missing?

Regards,
Werner
Change / Show Characteristics of an EtherChannel / Link Aggregation

Type or select values in entry fields.
Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

Entry Fields
EtherChannel / Link Aggregation ent3
EtherChannel / Link Aggregation Adapters ent0,ent1,ent5,ent6 +
Backup Adapter NONE +
Automatically Recover to Main Channel yes +
Delete Backup Adapter +
Add Main Adapter +
Delete Main Adapter +
Add Backup Adapter +
Enable Alternate Address no +
Alternate Address 0x000000000000 +
Enable Gigabit Ethernet Jumbo Frames no +
Mode standard +
Hash Mode default +
Internet Address to Ping []
Number of Retries [3] +#
Retry Timeout (sec) [1] +#
Apply change to DATABASE only no +

Originally posted by: cd3lgado

Hi

Did you finally find a solution ?. AFAIK there's no way to modify a Etherchannel device in available status.

Originally posted by: jnordtome

You can use the "Delete Backup Adapter" entry within smit. This should allow you to remove adapters while the etherchannel is active.

Originally posted by: j.gann

jnordtome is right.
aix manuals claim that aix etherchannels support "dynamic adapter membership":
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.commadmn/doc/commadmndita/etherchannel_dymember.htm

be sure to test it before changing a production system. Seems not to work for 802.1d link aggregation.

the "defensive" approach is to set interface(s) on top of the channel to Defined (rmdev -l enX), thereby disabling network traffic, reconfigure the channel, and set the interface device(s) back to Available.

Joachim Gann

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

Hi,

You cannot do this from smitty screen while working on VIO server.
You have to do it with command: /usr/lib/methods/ethchan_config -d -p

For refernce:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.doc/infocenter/base/aix53.htm.

heers

Originally posted by: jnordtome

Unfortunately the link posted above didn't work for me. I believe the -p option is for "parent adapter". Are you "nesting" the etherchannels? Just wondering why it would have a parent adapter.

Originally posted by: wkuballa

Thank you for your suggestions, but nothing works

Regarding "Delete Backup Adapter": my configuration does not use a backup adapter, it has four main adapters.

Regarding "ethchan_config": this is the command smitty is executing; it returns "ethchan_config: 0950-008 Unable to connect to device ent3, errno = 19"

The problems I am having may be related to the fact that a Shared Ethernet Adapter is layered on top of the EtherChannel. My configuration looks like this:

- ent4 (SEA, backing device: ent3, virtual: ent2)
- ent3 (EtherChannel, adpaters: ent0, ent1, ent5, ent6)
- ent2 (virtual ethernet of SEA)
- ent0 (dual ethernet card, port 0)
- ent1 (dual ethernet card, port 1)
- ent5 (ethernet card)
- ent6 (ethernet card)

The only interface that is configured and up is "en4" (and obviously "lo0").

I am trying to remove ent5 and ent6 from the EtherChannel. I am getting close to the point where I stop the VIO Server, remove these adapters from the partition profile and reboot the server again.

Regards,
Werner

Originally posted by: jnordtome

That's quite the setup.

The error that you're getting is confusing. Make sure the ent3 is "available" using the "lsdev -Cc adapter" command.

If it is available, then I believe we can modify it after bringing down the SEA device. Of course this will stop all traffic through the VIO server for the duration of the change. Not great but better than a reboot.

Log on from the "console" because the network will be going down.

1) rmdev -l en4 (put the interface in defined state)
2) rmdev -l ent4 (put adapter in defined state)
3) ethchan_config -d ent3 ent5 (remove ent5 from the etherchannel)
4) ethchan_config -d ent3 ent6 (remove ent6 from the etherchannel)
5) cfgmgr -l ent4 (put adapter back into available state)
6) cfgmgr -l en4 (put interface back into available state)

I haven't tried this before so take it with a grain of salt. Let us know if you try this and how it turns out. Thanks

Originally posted by: asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf

Just ran into this myself. I'd configured it as an interface with a backup, and it should have been configured as a true Etherchannel. The procedure was basically:

rmtcpip -all     # Otherwise you won
't be able to delete the interfaces  rmvdev -vtd ent5 # Delete the SEA or you can
't delete the Etherchannel rmvdev -vtd ent4 # Delete the Etherchannel 

interface mkvdev -lnadd ent0 ent1 # Recreate the Etherchannel properly


 mkvdev -sea ent4 -vadapter ent2 -

default ent2 -defaultid 1 -attr ha_mode=auto ctl_chan=ent3 # Recreate SEA


 mktcpip -hostname vio1 -inetaddr 10.1.1.2 -

interface en6 -start -gateway 10.1.1.1 -netmask 255.0.0.0 # Re-IP

Repeat on the second VIO server.

There was a 10-15 second outage when the primary SEA interface failed over.

Originally posted by: lclark

Hi:
go into oem_setup_env
1). down detach the en of the SEA
ifconfig en12 down detach
2). remove the SEA
rmdev -dl ent12
3). remove the link aggregate adapter
rmdev -dl ent8
4). recreate your etherchannel
5). recreate your SEA
6). place i.p. on your SEA