Creating a static multimode vif

You can improve throughput by creating a static multimode vif. With a multimode vif, all interfaces in the vif are active and share a single MAC address. This logical aggregation of interfaces provides higher throughput than a single-mode vif.

Before You Begin

You need to meet the following prerequisites to create a multimode vif:

Identify or install a switch that supports link aggregation over multiple port connections in your network, configured according to your switch vendor's instructions.
Decide on a case-sensitive name for the vif that meets the following criteria:
- It must begin with a letter.
- It must not contain a space.
- It must not contain more than 15 characters.
- It must not already be in use for a vif.
Decide on the interfaces you want the vif to consist of.
Configure all interfaces that will be included in the vif to be down using the ifconfig command.

Steps

Enter the following command:
vif create multi vif_name -b {mac|ip} [interface_list]
-b describes the load-balanciing method.

mac specifies MAC-addressed based.

Note: Do not select the MAC-address based load-balancing method when creating vifs on a storage system that connects directly to a router. In such a setup, for every outgoing IP frame, the destination MAC address will be the MAC address of the router. As a result, only one interface of the vif will be used.

ip indicates IP-addressed based (default).

vif_name is the name of a previously created vif.

interface_list is a list of the interfaces you want to add to the vif.
Enter the following command: ifconfig vifname IP_address netmask mask

Example

You can create a static multimode vif, comprising interfaces e0, e1, e2, and e3 and using MAC-based load balancing, with the following command:

vif create multi MultiTrunk1 -b mac e0 e1 e2 e3