How to configure your network interfaces

Configuring network interfaces involves assigning IP addresses, setting network parameters and hardware-dependent values, specifying network interfaces, and viewing your storage system's network configuration.

When you configure network interfaces, you can do any or all of the following:

Assign an IP address to a network interface.
Set parameters such as network mask and broadcast address (IPv4 only) and prefixlen (IPv4 and IPv6).
Set hardware-dependent values such as media type, MTU size, and flow control.
Specify whether the interface is attached to a network with firewall security protection.
Specify whether the network interface must be registered with Windows Internet Name Services (WINS), if CIFS is running and at least one WINS server has been configured.
Specify the IP address of an interface (for IPv4 only) or specify the interface name (for IPv4 and IPv6) on an active/active configuration partner for the takeover mode.
View the current configuration of a specific interface or all interfaces that exist on your storage system.

Network configuration and management tools
You can use the storage system's command-line interface or the FilerView graphical interface to configure and manage your storage system network.
New maximum number of network interfaces
Beginning with Data ONTAP 7.3, storage systems, except for the smallest models, are no longer limited to 128 interfaces per storage system. Larger storage systems can accommodate from 256 to 1024 network interfaces per system depending on the system's memory and whether they are in a clustered, active-active configuration.
Protocol blocking on individual storage system network interfaces
You can configure storage system network interfaces, including TOE-enabled interfaces, to block specified network protocols including CIFS, iSCSI, ftpd, NFS, or SnapMirror on selected interfaces.
Viewing and modifying network interface settings using FilerView
The FilerView graphical interface allows you to view or modify the network settings for your storage system.
Viewing network interface settings using the storage system command line
You can display network interface settings using your storage system command line.
Modifying network interface settings using the storage system command line
You can modify the parameters of your network interface settings using the command line of your storage system. For example, you can configure an IP address for a specific interface or specify a subnet mask.
About configuring aliases for an interface
You can create an alias, which is an alternate IP address for an interface, when you change the IP address of an interface to a new address. You can use the alias to continue accepting packets to the old IP address.
About changing an interface status up or down
Sometimes you have to make an interface inactive before you can perform certain tasks and then make it active again after you complete a task. You do this by entering an up or down parameter in the ifconfig interface command.