Ethernet Ports On The Mergepoint Sp5X24/Sp5X40 Manager - Avocent MERGEPOINT SP MANAGER Installer/User Manual

MergePoint® SP Manager Installer/User Guide
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NOTE: Connecting service processors to eth0 is not recommended because some services, like BMC provisioning
or DHCP servers, only listen to eth1.

Ethernet ports on the MergePoint SP5x24/SP5x40 manager

The MergePoint SP5x24/SP5x40 manager has two public Ethernet ports (eth0 and eth1) and 24
or 40 Ethernet private ports. The public ports are used for connecting to the public (or
management) network and the private ports are used for connecting to service processors on the
private network. Therefore, the managed private side of the MergePoint SP manager is isolated
from the public side to ensure security. Access to all connected service processor servers is
consolidated through the one publicly known IP address.
Private Ethernet ports
The MergePoint SP5x24/SP5x40 manager is aware of only a single interface to the private
network, priv0, for communicating with the SPs. Packets are sent and received by priv0 through
the private Ethernet ports.
Each private Ethernet port may be connected to one or to multiple service processors. For
example, an Ethernet port may be connected to a blade manager with multiple service
processors, and in those cases a single private Ethernet port may require multiple IP addresses.
All communication among private Ethernet ports is blocked unless priv0 is the sending or
receiving port.
Public Ethernet ports
On the public side of the MergePoint SP5x24/SP5x40 manager, the primary and secondary
Ethernet ports are referred to as eth0 and eth1.
Failover
Failover is important for high-availability environments where constant accessibility is required
to support mission-critical applications. The secondary Ethernet port on the MergePoint
SP5x24/SP5x40 manager can optionally be configured for failover. Failover automatically
redirects traffic from the primary Ethernet port to the secondary Ethernet port should the
primary interface fail.
The primary Ethernet port continues to be monitored, and when it starts functioning again,
traffic is then automatically redirected back through the primary Ethernet port. All connection
sessions continue without interruption.
With failover, both the primary and secondary Ethernet ports are assigned a single IP and single
MAC [Ethernet] address. After failover is enabled, the bonded Ethernet interfaces are referred to
as bond0.