new to netcf - maybe this is answered in the documentation, however

[Michael Felt]

I have done some superficial reading on netcf - and I notice several comments on bridiging. Found out what it is and I do not expect it on AIX. There is a specialized partition (VIOS) that provides that function (so-called Shared Ethernet Adapter aka SEA) by bridging the virtual LAN(s) with a physical port or ether-channel (pseudo) port.

What I have not noticed yet, common in AIX - is what is called an NIB - or Network Interface Backup. This is an additional feature of the AIX ether-channel pseudo device.

VLAN does exist in AIX, just done differently.

All in all, I expect most aspects to map well.

So, two questions: 
a) does netcf have a description for (automated) network interface backup (yes or no are fine answers);
b) could someone give a short listing of the interface definitions netcf has implemented? I will read the documentation, but a bulleted list of topics helps me get to the important items first.

Thanks!

[Laine Stump]

On 11/01/2016 12:22 PM, Michael Felt wrote:
> I have done some superficial reading on netcf - and I notice several comments on bridiging. Found out what it is and I do not expect it on AIX. There is a specialized partition (VIOS) that provides that function (so-called Shared Ethernet Adapter aka SEA) by bridging the virtual LAN(s) with a physical port or ether-channel (pseudo) port.
>
> What I have not noticed yet, common in AIX - is what is called an NIB - or Network Interface Backup. This is an additional feature of the AIX ether-channel pseudo device.

Is this similar to a bond in Linux? If so, possibly it could be 
represented as a device in netcf
> VLAN does exist in AIX, just done differently.
>
> All in all, I expect most aspects to map well.
>
> So, two questions:
> a) does netcf have a description for (automated) network interface backup (yes or no are fine answers);

If it's similar to a bond, then yes. If it's close, possibly it could be 
made to fit into that model.
> b) could someone give a short listing of the interface definitions netcf has implemented? I will read the documentation, but a bulleted list of topics helps me get to the important items first.

Documentation of the XML is unfortunately nearly nonexistent :-( which I 
take as solely my responsibility. There has just always been something 
more pressing and/or interesting to do, and I hate creating new 
documentaion (and also there's been very little demand). Because of 
that, the best documentation is the test files in tests/interface. There 
are 4 main types of interface supported by netcf:

ethernet
bond - can be the parent of multiple ethernet devices
bridge  - can be the parent of multiple ethernet, vlan and/or bond devices
vlan - can reference a single ethernet, vlan, or bridge device

There should be examples of each of these in the files in tests/interface.

[Michael Felt]

On 01-Nov-16 17:48, Laine Stump wrote:
> On 11/01/2016 12:22 PM, Michael Felt wrote:
> > I have done some superficial reading on netcf - and I notice several 
> > comments on bridiging. Found out what it is and I do not expect it on 
> > AIX. There is a specialized partition (VIOS) that provides that 
> > function (so-called Shared Ethernet Adapter aka SEA) by bridging the 
> > virtual LAN(s) with a physical port or ether-channel (pseudo) port.
> >
> > What I have not noticed yet, common in AIX - is what is called an NIB
> > or Network Interface Backup. This is an additional feature of the
> >
> > AIX ether-channel pseudo device.
>
> Is this similar to a bond in Linux? If so, possibly it could be 
> represented as a device in netcf

Yes, looks very similiar. This gives a good summary  of what has been 
around since 1998 (if not earlier). In 2001-2002 (with AIX 5.2 things 
got easier).
  http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_aix_61/com.ibm.aix.network...
> > VLAN does exist in AIX, just done differently.
> >
> > All in all, I expect most aspects to map well.
> >
> > So, two questions:
> > a) does netcf have a description for (automated) network interface 
> > backup (yes or no are fine answers);
>
> If it's similar to a bond, then yes. If it's close, possibly it could 
> be made to fit into that model.

If a bond is a pseudo device (e.g., ent0 is the physical adapter and 
ent1 is the vlan aware adapter things will map quite easily. From what I 
have seen in documents it looks as if eth0 is vlan unaware, and 
eth0.XXXX is the vlan aware adapter - that, I assume, also has an an IP 
address.
There are straightforward commands on AIX to define "all" of this - 
generally only one key command be used: mkdev. The two other commands: 
chdev to change things, and rmdev too disable (default aka unavailable) 
or delete (clear information from ODM as well).

For an introduction see: 
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_61/com.ibm.aix.networkcom...
> > b) could someone give a short listing of the interface definitions 
> > netcf has implemented? I will read the documentation, but a bulleted 
> > list of topics helps me get to the important items first.
>
> Documentation of the XML is unfortunately nearly nonexistent :-( which 
> I take as solely my responsibility. There has just always been 
> something more pressing and/or interesting to do, and I hate creating 
> new documentaion (and also there's been very little demand). Because 
> of that, the best documentation is the test files in tests/interface. 
> There are 4 main types of interface supported by netcf:
>
> ethernet
> bond - can be the parent of multiple ethernet devices
> bridge  - can be the parent of multiple ethernet, vlan and/or bond 
> devices
> vlan - can reference a single ethernet, vlan, or bridge device
>
> There should be examples of each of these in the files in 
> tests/interface.

Well, try again tomorrow to get it to build asis, and then look to make 
it suitable as a driver for configuration.