Compatibility and Installation Requirements

This section describes the compatibility information and installation requirements for this release. For specific installation instructions, see the HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Administrator's Guide.

Required Patches

HP APA requires the following patches:

PHKL_31500 or its superseding patch
Streams patch PHNE_34788 or its superseding patch
LAN Cumulative patch PHNE_35545 or its superseding patch.
ARPA Transport patch PHNE_35766 or its superseding patch




	NOTE: HP recommends the Streams, LAN Cumulative, and ARPA Transport patches only if you want to use 8 ports for trunking; they are not required. HP recommends the LAN Cumulative patch only if you want VLAN over APA support.

You can download patches from the following website:

http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/mainPage.do

Required Software

HP APA requires the following software only if you want to use 8 ports for trunking:

IPFilter version A.03.05.14, if you use IP Filter

You can download software from the following website:

http://www.hp.com/go/softwaredepot

Enter IPFilter into the Search box at the top of the page.

Operating System and Version Compatibility

This release is specific for HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23).

Hardware Requirements

This version of HP APA now runs on either HP 9000 servers or HP Integrity servers with the HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23) operating system.

HP APA supports Cisco's FastEtherChannel (PAgP) protocol, the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (IEEE 802.3ad), or manual trunking mechanisms.

HP has tested switches from the following vendors to work with HP APA:

3Com Corebuilder and SuperStack
All Cisco Catalyst series
HP ProCurve
Foundry
Alteon
Nortel
Extreme

HP APA also supports Nortel's Split Multi-Link Trunking (SMLT) technology. Specifically, HP has tested the Passport 8006 and Passport 8010 switches with the version 3.7.13.0 of the software.




	NOTE: Hot Standby and LAN Monitor modes are both supported with all switches; however, HP strongly recommends using LAN Monitor rather than Hot Standby mode.

The following network adapter cards are supported:

All HP PCI 10/100Base cards (both FX and TX)
NOTE: HP APA does not support the 10/100 BT Standard/Management LAN interface found on some systems and controlled by the intl100 driver, and any other devices controlled by the intl100 driver.
All HP PCI 1000Base cards (both Base-T and SX)
PCI-X 10 GbE Fiber cards (LAN Monitor mode only)
PCI Token Ring (LAN Monitor mode only)
PCI FDDI (LAN Monitor mode only)
All HP PCI-X 2-port Combination cards (network ports only)

Required Disk Space

Approximately 2 MB.

First-time Installation

For an initial HP APA installation, two files, hp_apaconf and hp_apaportconf are placed in /etc/rc.config.d.

The default configuration port mode is MANUAL.

Configuration File Changes

This release enables the use of an optional HP_APA_LACP_TIMEOUT parameter in the /etc/rc.config.d/hp_apaconf file. Valid values are 0 (slow) and 1 (fast). The default value is 0.

Interoperability with HP Serviceguard

For this release of HP APA, to use link aggregates with HP Serviceguard, you must use HP Serviceguard version A.11.17 or later. To use failover groups (LAN_MONITOR mode), you must also install the HP Serviceguard PHSS_35427 patch. This patch also supports LACP link aggregations and link aggregations with more than four ports.

For HP APA versions B.11.23.20 and earlier, you must install the HP APA PHNE_36403 patch to use failover groups with HP Serviceguard version A.11.17.