VIPA Issue Routing Configuration

From: Chris (christian.goulart_at_cgi.com)
Date: 07/16/03 

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 12:18:59 -0400

 Hi!
We're trying to set up VIPA on a closed Gb network. Basically, of four AIX
5.2 servers, we have each with a 10/100 NIC on the general network. For
inter-server communication we have each server set up with 2 Gb NICs, on a
closed network, with no router. What we'd like to do is configure VIPA, so
that we can have failover on the Gb network for each server, and route
traffic between the four server through that Gb interface.

The issue we're encountering is that with a virtual interface configured, we
cannot route to the other servers' virtual interfaces. Nor can a static
route be added to the server's routing table that directs traffic through
the virtual interface. The question is, do we have to have an external
router, or a routing daemon on one of the servers, and routing clients
running on each server to be able to allow routing between the servers on
the Gb network? Is there no way to do static routing with VIPA.

The configuration of our servers was done as per the VIPA document on IBM's
site:

http://www16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/aixbman/commadmn/tcp_vipa.htm

The VIPA Server configuration that we were attempting is as follos: (done
through smit):

The below configuration would work to set up the virtual devices that would
allow for failover on the Gb NICs, however, the configuration cannot yet
account for routing requirements in between servers on the 172.16.3 subnet.

SERVER1

Real Interfaces:
en1 IP: 172.16.1.10 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)
en2 IP: 172.16.2.10 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)

Virtual Interface:
vi0 IP: 172.16.3.10 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Interfaces: en1, en2

Final Gb Interace Routing Table Entries On Configuration:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use If PMTU Exp
Groups
172.16.1/24 172.16.1.10 U 0 0 en1 - -
172.16.1.10 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 258 lo0 - -
172.16.2/24 172.16.2.10 U 0 0 en2 - -
172.16.2.10 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.3.10 127.0.0.1 UH 3 281 lo0 - -

SERVER2

Real Interfaces:
en1 IP: 172.16.1.11 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)
en2 IP: 172.16.2.11 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)
Virtual Interface:
vi0 IP: 172.16.3.11 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Interfaces: en1, en2

Final Gb Interace Routing Table Entries On Configuration:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use If PMTU Exp
Groups
172.16.1/24 172.16.1.11 U 0 0 en1 - -
172.16.1.11 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.2/24 172.16.2.11 U 0 0 en2 - -
172.16.2.11 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.3.11 127.0.0.1 UH 0 0 lo0 - -

SERVER3

Real Interfaces:
en1 IP: 172.16.1.12 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)
en2 IP: 172.16.2.12 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)

Virtual Interface:
vi0 IP: 172.16.3.12 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Interfaces: en1, en2

Final Gb Interace Routing Table Entries On Configuration:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use If PMTU Exp
Groups
172.16.1/24 172.16.1.12 U 0 0 en1 - -
172.16.1.12 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.2/24 172.16.2.12 U 0 0 en2 - -
172.16.2.12 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.3.12 127.0.0.1 UH 0 0 lo0 - -

SERVER4

Real Interfaces:
en1 IP: 172.16.1.13 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)
en2 IP: 172.16.2.13 Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Virtual Interface:
(Configured with system hostname and default gateway the same as that of
en0)
vi0 IP: 172.16.3.13 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Interfaces: en1, en2

Final Gb Interace Routing Table Entries On Configuration:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use If PMTU Exp
Groups
172.16.1/24 172.16.1.13 U 0 0 en1 - -
172.16.1.13 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.2/24 172.16.2.13 U 0 0 en2 - -
172.16.2.13 127.0.0.1 UGHS 0 0 lo0 - -
172.16.3.13 127.0.0.1 UH 2 8 lo0 - -

SERVER'S SHARED CONFIGURATION:

/etc/hosts:
172.16.3.10 server1gb
172.16.3.11 server2gb
172.16.3.12 server3gb
172.16.3.13 server4gb

If anyone has any ideas on how to move forward from here, it'd be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks.

christian.goulart@cgi.com

---
Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net
Complaints to news@netfront.net

Relevant Pages

  • new backup server
    ... I've had the configuration and pricing set ... comments on my choice of tape changer, or comments on issues related to ... I have a number of hand-me-down Sun Enterprise 250 servers. ... Amanda seems to be flexible enough that I can just ...
    (SunManagers)
  • Re: Exchange 2000 - Domain Controller Failover - could not send or
    ... > ESM DSAccess tab as Global Catalog Servers. ... clients could not send or receive email. ... >>> Enterprise Configuration to the second DC and still no luck. ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange2000.active.directory.integration)
  • Prblm: GAL and child domain, basically two different GALs. Wants shared GAL.
    ... I have just configured two Exchange servers in a customer's network. ... have two separate GALs, one for each domain, which is not very global. ... configuration looks the same in the Exchange System Manager on both ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.admin)
  • Re: Really Crazy SMTP Problem
    ... > wasn't delivering mail to any remote mail servers so I checked my mail ... > checking the postfix configuration, assuming I had just messed something ... The other machines on the network running mail ... Knowing this not to be the case, ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Toggling time sync between two servers
    ... each have a third party application reading time off a serial line from ... I've read here that having two servers is a bad situation ... restart min polling due to step ... There, in a nutshell, you see why two servers is the worst possible configuration! ...
    (comp.protocols.time.ntp)