Creating a LIF

A LIF is an IP address associated with a physical port. If there is any component failure, a LIF can fail over to or be migrated to a different physical port, thereby continuing to communicate with the cluster.

Before you begin

The underlying physical network port must have been configured to the administrative up status.
You should have considered the guidelines for creating LIFs: Guidelines for creating LIFs
If you want to create LIFs with IPv6 addresses, you should have considered the guidelines for assigning IPv6 addresses: Guidelines for assigning IPv6 addresses for LIFs

About this task

You can create both IPv4 and IPv6 LIFs on the same network port.
You cannot assign NAS and SAN protocols to a LIF.
The supported protocols are CIFS, NFS, FlexCache, iSCSI, and FCP.
The data-protocol option must be specified when the LIF is created, and cannot be modified later.
If you specify none as the value for the data-protocol option, the LIF does not support any data protocol.
A cluster LIF should not be on the same subnet as a management LIF or a data LIF.

Steps

Use the network interface create command to create a LIF.

Example

cluster1::> network interface create -vserver vs1 -lif datalif1 -role data -home-node node-4 -home-port e1c
-address 192.0.2.145 -netmask 255.255.255.0 -firewall-policy data -auto-revert true

Optional: If you want to assign an IPv6 address in the -address option, then perform the following steps:
1. Use the ndp -p command to view the list of RA prefixes learned on various interfaces.
  The ndp -p command is available from the node shell.
2. Use the format prefix:: id to construct the IPv6 address manually.
  prefix is the prefix learned on various interfaces.
  
  For deriving the id, choose one of the following:
  - A random, 64-bit hexadecimal number
  - LLA address configured on the interface

Use the network interface show command to verify that LIF has been created successfully.

Example

The following example demonstrates different LIFs created in the cluster:

cluster1::> network interface show

            Logical    Status     Network            Current       Current Is
Vserver     Interface  Admin/Oper Address/Mask       Node          Port    Home
----------- ---------- ---------- ------------------ ------------- ------- ----
cluster1
            cluster_mgmt up/up    192.0.2.3/24       node-1        e1a     true
node-1
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.12/24      node-1        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.13/24      node-1        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.68/24      node-1        e1a     true
node-2
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.14/24      node-2        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.15/24      node-2        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.69/24      node-2        e1a     true
node-3
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.17/24      node-3        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.18/24      node-3        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.68/24      node-3        e1a     true
node-4
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.20/24      node-4        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.21/24      node-4        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.70/24      node-4        e1a     true
vs1
            datalif1     up/down  192.0.2.145/30     node-4        e1c     true
           
14 entries were displayed.

Example

The following example demonstrates data LIFs named datalif3 and datalif4 configured with IPv4 and IPv6 addresses respectively:

cluster1::> network interface show

            Logical    Status     Network            Current       Current Is
Vserver     Interface  Admin/Oper Address/Mask       Node          Port    Home
----------- ---------- ---------- ------------------ ------------- ------- ----
cluster1
            cluster_mgmt up/up    192.0.2.3/24       node-1        e1a     true
node-1
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.12/24      node-1        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.13/24      node-1        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.68/24      node-1        e1a     true
node-2
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.14/24      node-2        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.15/24      node-2        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.69/24      node-2        e1a     true
node-3
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.17/24      node-3        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.18/24      node-3        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.68/24      node-3        e1a     true
node-4
            clus1        up/up    192.0.2.20/24      node-4        e0a     true
            clus2        up/up    192.0.2.21/24      node-4        e0b     true
            mgmt1        up/up    192.0.2.70/24      node-4        e1a     true
vs1
            datalif1     up/down  192.0.2.145/30     node-4        e1c     true
vs3
            datalif3     up/up    192.0.2.146/30     node-3        e0c     true
            datalif4     up/up    2001::2/64         node-3        e0c     true
16 entries were displayed.

Use the network ping command to verify that the configured IPv4 addresses are reachable.
Use the ping6 command (available for the nodeshell) to verify that the IPv6 addresses are reachable.
All the name mapping and host-name resolution services, such as DNS, NIS, LDAP, and Active Directory, must be reachable from the data, cluster-management, and node-management LIFs of the cluster.