to boot or not to boot (Solaris)

[Iztok Umek]

"Albertson, Brett" <brett.albertson@stratech.com> said:

> I concur with Iztok's method as described below.  Please be wary that most
> intelligent network hardware will not forward packets to your new
> hot-standby even after you change the IP address to that of the down box.
> This is due to the network hardware working with the MAC address (Ethernet
> Address), not the IP.  When you ifconfig the new interface, you should also
> change it's MAC address to match your down server's MAC address.  Otherwise,
> the default refresh on Cisco switches in 10 minutes, during which you would
> look down to the customers.
>
> In Solaris you change the EA as an option to ifconfig.
>
> # ifconfig hme0 ether 8:0:20:ff:ff:ff

A agree with Brett.

If by any chance you can't configure MAC address, then you can "ping" the
clients in the local network and/or router with new IP/MAC combination. This way
they will flush their ARP cache and aquire new MAC associated with the IP.

Another important thing to keep in mind (especially if you are the paranoid
security person). Sometimes network managers lock down MAC addresses on the
switch ports (to reduce some security risks associated with plugging in unknown
devices). Be sure that if you use this MAC reconfiguration (taking over MAC
address of another NIC) that network switch is configured properly. Otherwise
you will be troubleshooting a long time before figuring out what went wrong.

Regards,
     Iztok

--
Iztok Umek
Smart Information Consulting
CCSA/CCSE, SCSA/SCNA, GISO