NICs(Network Interface Controller) failover and load balancing methods.
There are three types of VIF (Virtual Interface):
- Single-mode vif
- Static multimode vif
- Dynamic multimode vif
Single-mode VIF is what we call Active/Standby mode. It doesn’t provide load balancing/sharing function. It provides the benefit without switch support for link aggregate. All interfaces of the single-mode vif must be in the same broadcast domain, and they share with the same MAC address.
Static multimode vif is in compliance with IEEE802.3ad(static). It does not support Cisco PAgP and 802.3ad(dynamic, LACP). All interfaces of static multimode vif share also the same MAC address and all interfaces are active. It provides up to (n-1) failed interfaces recovery.
Dynamic multimode vif is still not very clear for me…. (need to clarify)
VIF commands:
vif create single {vif_name} {if1_name} {if2_name} […]
vif status
ifconfig {vif_name} down
vif destroy {vif_name}