apa(7)									apa(7)

NAME
       apa  -  HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) to create link aggregates (often
       called trunks) and failover groups of network links

DESCRIPTION
       HP APA, the HP link aggregate or trunking product, provides the ability
       to logically group two or more physical network ports into a single Fat
       Pipe, often called a Network traffic is load balanced across all of the
       links  in  the  aggregation,  which allows you to build large bandwidth
       logical links into the server that are highly available and  completely
       transparent to the client and server applications.  HP APA is available
       for HP-UX 11i V1, V2 and V3.

       In addition to increased performance, enterprise users require  protec‐
       tion  against  business interruptions and loss of productivity.	HP APA
       features automatic link failure detection and the ability  to  transfer
       traffic	to  one	 of the redundant links in a specified failover group.
       This is done transparently to  the  applications	 to  ensure  a	highly
       available environment.

       Like  any  other LAN interface, configure IP addresses on these APA lan
       interfaces using the command.  See ifconfig(1M)) for more information.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS
       HP APA provides the following key benefits:

	      ·	 Bandwidth scalability: Allows scaling of networks to  improve
		 aggregate throughput.

	      ·	 High  availability:  Provides redundancy or link aggregate of
		 network ports.

	      ·	 Load balancing: Supports load balancing and failure  recovery
		 capabilities  and  distributes	 traffic across the aggregated
		 links, based on IP addresses, TCP/UDP Port  numbers,  or  MAC
		 addresses.

	      ·	 Single MAC address: Assigns one single logical MAC address to
		 an aggregate and all its ports.

	      ·	 Flexibility: Allows addition and  deletion  of	 ports	in  an
		 aggregate to achieve desired performance whenever needed.

	      ·	 Investment  protection:  Utilizes  Ethernet technology, which
		 provides a natural upgrade path for current Ethernet  instal‐
		 lations,  leveraging  existing end-stations, management tools
		 and training.

	      ·	 Lower IT costs: Provides automated configuration and  manage‐
		 ment tools using the IEEE 802.3ad standard or FEC protocol.

CONFIGURATION MODES
       HP APA allows the following configuration modes:

	      ·	 Used  for link aggregates on HP servers that are connected to
		 a switch that has manual aggregation (trunk) configured.

	      ·	 Used for link aggregates on HP servers that are connected  to
		 a switch that has aggregation (trunk) configured with Cisco's
		 Fast EtherChannel (FEC) protocol, also known as PAgP.

	      ·	 Used for link aggregates on HP servers that are connected  to
		 a  switch  that  has aggregation (trunk) configured with IEEE
		 802.3ad (LACP) protocol.

	      ·	 Used for failover group configuration on HP  servers.	 There
		 is  no	 special  feature  required on switch connected to the
		 links.

MANAGING APA CONFIGURATION
       APA interfaces can be configured and managed by using the (SMH):

       ·  On the SMH page, click the tab, then click in the section.

       ·  Use the text based interactive tool:

       See smh(1M) for more information.

       APA interfaces can also be configured and managed by using the  command
       line interface.	See nwmgr(1M) and nwmgr_apa(1M) manpages or run:

       for  information	 on  how to use the command for configuring APA inter‐
       faces.

       APA interfaces can also be configured and managed by using  the	legacy
       command	for  link  aggregates  and  by	using the command for failover
       group.  These commands are available since initial release of the prod‐
       uct.   However,	starting  with the HP-UX 11i V3 APA product, HP recom‐
       mends using the command instead of using and commands.

       See the documents listed in the for details on how to  use  these  com‐
       mands.

PRODUCT DOCUMENTATION
       For  detailed  information,  including installation, configuration, and
       troubleshooting, please see the following documents at in the I/O Cards
       and Networking Software collection:

	      ·

	      ·

WARNINGS
       The  and	 commands  are deprecated. These commands will be removed in a
       future HP-UX release.  HP recommends the use of replacement command  to
       perform all network interface-related tasks.

FILES
       Link Aggregate configuration file

       Port configuration file

       Failover group configuration file

AUTHORS
       The Auto Port Aggregation (APA) product is developed by HP.

SEE ALSO
       netstat(1),   ifconfig(1M),  lanadmin(1M),  lanscan(1M),	 linkloop(1M),
       nwmgr(1M), nwmgr_apa(1M), smh(1M), lan(7).

									apa(7)

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