6.0 HP X9720 Network Storage System Administrator Guide (AW549-96034, December 2011)

Identifying a user network interface for a file serving node
To identify a user network interface for specific file serving nodes, use the ibrix_nic command.
The interface name (IFNAME) can include only alphanumeric characters and underscores, such
as eth1.
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_nic -a -n IFNAME -h HOSTLIST
If you are identifying a VIF, add the VIF suffix (:nnnn) to the physical interface name. For example,
the following command identifies virtual interface eth1:1 to physical network interface eth1 on
file serving nodes s1.hp.com and s2.hp.com:
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_nic -a -n eth1:1 -h s1.hp.com,s2.hp.com
When you identify a user network interface for a file serving node, the management console queries
the node for its IP address, netmask, and MAC address and imports the values into the configuration
database. You can modify these values later if necessary.
If you identify a VIF, the management console does not automatically query the node. If the VIF
will be used only as a standby network interface in an automated failover setup, the management
console will query the node the first time a network is failed over to the VIF. Otherwise, you must
enter the VIF’s IP address and netmask manually in the configuration database (see “Setting network
interface options in the configuration database” (page 74)). The management console does not
require a MAC address for a VIF.
If you created a user network interface for X9000 client traffic, you will need to prefer the network
for the X9000 clients that will use the network (see “Preferring network interfaces” (page 74)).
Setting network interface options in the configuration database
To make a VIF usable, execute the following command to specify the IP address and netmask for
the VIF. You can also use this command to modify certain ifconfig options for a network.
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_nic -c -n IFNAME -h HOSTNAME [-I IPADDR] [-M NETMASK]
[-B BCASTADDR] [-T MTU]
For example, to set netmask 255.255.0.0 and broadcast address 10.0.0.4 for interface eth3 on
file serving node s4.hp.com:
<installdirectory>/bin/ibrix_nic -c -n eth3 -h s4.hp.com -M 255.255.0.0 -B 10.0.0.4
Preferring network interfaces
After creating a user network interface for file serving nodes or X9000 clients, you will need to
prefer the interface for those nodes and clients. (It is not necessary to prefer a network interface
for NFS or CIFS clients, because they can select the correct user network interface at mount time.)
A network interface preference is executed immediately on file serving nodes. For X9000 clients,
the preference intention is stored on the management console. When X9000 Software services
start on a client, the client queries the management console for the network interface that has been
preferred for it and then begins to use that interface. If the services are already running on X9000
74 Maintaining the system