sowmini

Ethernet administration: Linux vs Solaris

On Linux, many of the ethernet parameters are configured using ethtool.

OpenSolaris  2008.11 provides equivalent functionality using dladm. Here's a table of mappings between Linux and OpenSolaris.

Posted at 11:20AM May 14, 2009 by sowmini in Personal  |  Comments[0]

dladm(1m) replaces ndd for datalink administration!

Opensolaris 2008.11 brings with it an enhanced adminstratrive model for data-link drivers using dladm(1m), introduced as part of the Brussels Project

The framework for supporting Brussels was available in OpenSolaris 2008.05 and here is a White Paper providing details about the features.  OpenSolaris 2008.11 bringswith it the following  new features:

• coverage for a wider range of drivers. The bge, e1000g, nge, nxge, hxge, afe, mxfe, iwk, ath and wpi drivers all now support Brussels.
• persistent property configuration, so that parameter settings are restored when the driver is restarted (a feature notably lacking with ndd(1m)). Thus the execution of the "set-linkprop" command above would only need to be done once: the setting is picked up on each reboot, and on each replumb of the net1 interface!
• NDD compatibility is handled at the GLDv3 layer, so driver-authors do not need to provide complex code to wade through  the ND_SET and ND_GET ioctls. All that is required is the support for Brussels setprop/getprop callbacks, and ndd(1m) invocations will be mapped to these callbacks by the GLDv3 layer. Interested in the details? Check out the design doc, or if you prefer,  some slides from a recent presentation. 
  

OpenSolaris 2008.11 also brings with it other cool adminstrative enhancements such as Nemo Unification and Vanity Naming that, in conjunction with Brussels, vastly change the administrative experience!

Posted at 07:31AM Oct 29, 2008 by sowmini in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Brussels ndd compatibility changes are in Nevada 90

More good news- the fixes for 

 
 PSARC/2008/171 Brussels: NDD compatiblity support

and

PSARC/2008/175 Brussels framework enhancements to get/set defaults

have been put back into snv_90. With these changes, ethernet  drivers which have used ndd(1m) to configure MII parameters no longer have to provide code to hande ND_SET and ND_GET ioctls  - the GLDv3 layer will automatically translate the ndd ioctls into equivalent setprop/getprop commands and invoke the drivers registered entry points.

 For design details, check out the nddcompat design doc   at the OpenSolaris Brussels project page.

We've also put out a White Paper summarizing what features are available through Brussels, and when/how one would use them.  Hope you find the information useful!

Coming soon: Brussels Persistence, so that you can just tune once, and have the setting available for the next restart.

Posted at 02:08PM May 02, 2008 by sowmini in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Interactive GUI prototype for Brussels

Brussels  has just put out an interactive mock-up of a GUI prototype- we're looking for feedback from our users!

Posted at 07:04AM Nov 09, 2007 by sowmini in Personal  |  Comments[0]