Associating a SUSE LINUX Operating Environment with a Secure Fabric

Verifying Status of the InfiniBand HCA Port

hca_self_test.ofed

Verify that all checks are passed, and the ports connected to an InfiniBand network are up.

Assigning IP Addresses for Default InfiniBand Ports

Typically, the IP addresses for the default InfiniBand ports were assigned during initial operating system installation and configuration. For more information on assigning IP addresses for the default InfiniBand ports, refer to the ClearPath Forward Installation and Getting Started Guide.

Creating a Virtual IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) Interface

When configuring a SUSE LINUX operating environment for participating in a secure fabric—other than the predefined IP-LAN secure fabric—you must create a virtual IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) interface using the subnet tag (PKEY) of each secure fabric the SUSE LINUX operating environment will participate in. In addition, for the virtual IPoIB interface to operate in a high availability (active-passive failover) mode, both ports of the InfiniBand HCA card must each have a virtual IPoIB interface associated with the secure fabric, and both virtual IPoIB interfaces must be bonded in an active-backup mode.

To enable and persist the virtual IPoIB interface, and assign an IP address to the interface, create a configuration file for each interface in the /etc/sysconfig/network directory. The syntax for the configuration file name is:

ifcfg-ibX.YYYY

Where X is 0 or 1, depending on the InfiniBand HCA port; and YYYY is the secure fabric subnet tag (PKEY) in hex.

Note: The format of the subnet tag (PKEY) is 0xYYYY where the highest order bit is always 1. For example, a subnet tag (PKEY) of 2 would be 0x8002.

For example, if you want to create configuration files for a bonded virtual IPoIB interface for the secure fabric with the subnet tag (PKEY) of 4000 (4 hex-digit 8FA0), log in as root, and then create the following files:

A file named ifcfg-ib0.8fa0 in the /etc/sysconfig/network directory with the following content:
```
BOOTPROTO=none
MTU="
STARTMODE='hotplug'
USERCONTROL='no'
```
A file named ifcfg-ib1.8fa0 in the /etc/sysconfig/network directory with the following content:
```
BOOTPROTO=none
MTU="
STARTMODE='hotplug'
USERCONTROL='no'
```

A file named ifcfg-bond0.8fa0 in the /etc/sysconfig/network directory with the following content:

BONDING_MASTER='yes'
BONDING_MODULE_OPTS='mode=active-backup miimon=250'
BONDING_SLAVE0='ib0.8fa0'
BONDING_SLAVE1='ib1.8fa0'
BOOTPROTO='static'
IPADDR='172.31.xx.1/16'
MTU="
STARTMODE='auto'
USERCONTROL='no'

Where xx is the platform number for your enterprise partition platform.

Be sure to restart all InfiniBand interfaces and apply changes:

service network restart

Note: You can also reboot the system to apply changes.

Defining Bonds in the Bond.conf File

Define bonds in the file /etc/modprobe.d/bond.conf.

Ensure the format of each entry is in the following form:

alias <bond device name> bonding

For example,

alias bond0 bonding
alias bond0.8fa0 bonding

Verifying Connection

If desired, verify that your SUSE LINUX operating environment is connected to the secure fabric by issuing a ping command to another operating environment (if available) participating in the secure fabric.