NAME

ap_nmd, mhme, mle, mnf, mqe, mqfe, mvge - AP network meta-driver group

SYNOPSIS

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mhme

/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mle
/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mnf
/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mqe
/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mqfe
/devices/pseudo/clone@0:mvge

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 hme (7)(Sun FastEthernet 2.0), le(7) (Lance Ethernet), nf (7)(FDDI 5.x), qe(7) (Quad Ethernet), qfe (Quad FastEthernet), and vge (Sun Gigabit Ethernet).

Note:

SunOS man pages that describe drivers for optional packages, such as FDDI and Sun FastEthernet, are available only on systems that have those packages installed.

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_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 Sun Enterprise Server Alternate Pathing 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

mhme.conf

Driver configuration file

mle.conf

Driver configuration file

mnf.conf

Driver configuration file

mqe.conf

Driver configuration file

mqfe.conf

Driver configuration file

mvge.conf

Driver configuration file

/dev/mhme

hme special character device

/dev/mle

le special character device

/dev/mnf

nf special character device

/dev/mqe

qe special character device

/dev/mqfe

qfe special character device

/dev/mvge

vge special character device

DIAGNOSTICS

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

ap_nmd ( 7 ) SEE ALSO

Sun Enterprise Server Alternate Pathing User's Guide

ap_daemon(1M), apconfig(1M), apdb(1M), apnet(1M), ap(7), ap_dmd(7), in this reference manual

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

man Pages(7): Device and Network Interfaces of the SunOS Reference Manual and other optional reference manuals (for example, FDDI Reference Manual), as appropriate