NAME

ap_nmd, mbf, mhi, mhme, mle, mnf, mqe - AP network meta-driver group

SYNOPSIS

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mbf - CS6400 server only

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mhi - CS6400 server only

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mhme - Enterprise 10000 server only

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mle - Enterprise 10000 and CS6400 servers

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mnf - FDDI 3 or 5 on CS6400 servers; FDDI 5 on Enterprise 10000 servers

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mqe - Enterprise 10000 and CS6400 servers

DESCRIPTION

ap_nmd is a group of multi-threaded, loadable, clonable, STREAMS meta-network device drivers that support the connectionless Data Link Provider Interface, dlpi(7), for bf(7) (FDDI 2.0), hi(7) (HiPPI), hme (7)(Sun FastEthernet 2.0), le(7) (Lance Ethernet), nf (7) (FDDI 3.0.x or 5.x) and qe(7) (Quad Ethernet).

NOTE:

The SunOS man pages bf (7)and nf (7)are available only on systems that run Sun's optional FDDI packages; hme (7)is available (by mid-1997) on systems that run Sun FastEthernet; hi(7) is available only on systems that run the optional HiPPI package.

ap_nmd works with the AP software to support Alternate Pathing for physical network devices.

Device operations of ap_nmd are an extension of the operations of the underlying network drivers. ap_nmd normally operates as a transparent pass-through module; it neither interprets nor modifies any of the STREAMS DLPI type messages. However, it does intercept and modify the DL_ATTACH_REQ and DL_INFO_ACK messages.

DL_ATTACH_REQ messages are captured and used to drive the initial connection between logical and physical devices. DL_INFO_ACK messages are captured and responded to with a prebuilt response to eliminate the possibility of the message response timing out due to induced message delays.

The cloning character-special device /dev/mxx is used to access all device-specific instances of the ap_nmd within the system.

AP Special Files..ap_nmd ( 7 ) ap_nmd and AP

The ap_nmd driver provides an interface to support Alternate Pathing. The APSET interface allows a user to provide a mapping between physical path and logical path. The APUNSET provides an interface to remove a physical-to-logical path mapping and APSWITCH provide a mechanism to switch a logical path from its existing physical path to a new physical path. For a more complete description of the AP capability, see the Alternate Pathing 2.0 User's Guide.

ap_nmd and DLPI

The ap_nmd driver is a "style 2" Data Link Service provider. All DLPI processing is handled by the underlying physical device driver. See the man page that corresponds to each underlying driver.

ERRORS

EBUSY

An attempt was made to unload a busy device, or to APUNSET an active device

EEXIST

An attempt was made to APSET an existing logical-to-physical mapping and a logical path when the system was out of memory

EIO

An attempt to switch between physical devices failed

ENODEV

No physical mapping exists

ENOMEM

System memory was exhausted during an attempt to create a mapping between a physical path and a logical path

FILES

mbf.conf

Driver configuration file

mhi.conf

Driver configuration file

mhme.conf

Driver configuration file

mle.conf

Driver configuration file

mnf.conf

Driver configuration file

mqe.conf

Driver configuration file

/dev/mbf

bf special character device

/dev/mhi

hi special character device

/dev/mhme

hme special character device

/dev/mle

le special character device

/dev/mnf

nf special character device

/dev/mqe

qe special character device

DIAGNOSTICS

See hi(7) in the HiPPI Reference (available only with those systems that support the HiPPI option)

le(7), qe(7) in man Pages(7): Device and Network Interfaces of the SunOS Reference Manual.

SEE ALSO

Alternate Pathing 2.0 User's Guide

ap_daemon(1M), apconfig(1M), apdb(1M), apnet(1M) in man Pages(1M): Alternate Pathing Administration Commands

ap(7), ap_dmd(7), in man Pages(7): Alternate Pathing Special Files

hi(7) in the HiPPI Reference (provided only with those systems that support HiPPI)

driver.conf(4) in man Pages(4): File Formats of the SunOS Reference Manual

dlpi(7), le(7), qe(7) in man Pages(7): Device and Network Interfaces of the SunOS Reference Manual

bf (7),nf (7)in the FDDI Reference Manual (provided only with those systems that support FDDI)