Solaris 9 new pumbed interface will not enter a RUNNING state

Applications IP Networking
1

I'm trying to plumb a new interface bge1 on my machine:

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.22 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7d

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge1 plumb

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.22 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7d
bge1: flags=1000842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 14
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7e

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge1 10.14.5.73 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.14.5.255

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.22 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7d
bge1: flags=1000842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 14
inet 10.14.5.73 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.14.5.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7e

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge1 up

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.22 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7d
bge1: flags=1000803<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 14
inet 10.14.5.73 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.14.5.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7e

Notice that the new interface bge1 is 'RUNNING' until i 'ifconfig bge1 up' it. I read that if the interface is not running then the kernel does not recognize it. Even if I 'ifconfig bge1 down' the int it never comes back to running. I have to unplumb and plumb it again to get it running but it will never stay that way after I 'ifconfig bge1 up' the int. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?

2

try:
ifconfig bge1 plumb up
ifconfig bge1 10.14.5.73 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.14.5.255

3

Just tried it, the interface never shows running:
root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge1 plumb up

root@obms2-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.22 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7d
bge1: flags=1000803<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 15
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000
ether 0:14:4f:56:8f:7e

So I went ahead and tried it on another Solaris 9 box in the same cluster with an interface that is not connected to anything. The first time I 'ifconfig bge2 plumb up' it worked but then after 'ifconfig bge2 down' the interface stopped running:
root@obms3-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge2 plumb up

root@obms3-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.23 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2d
bge1: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 3
inet 10.14.5.70 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.14.5.255
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2e
bge2: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 4
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2f

root@obms3-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge2 down

root@obms3-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.23 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2d
bge1: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 3
inet 10.14.5.70 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.14.5.255
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2e
bge2: flags=1000802<BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 4
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2f

root@obms3-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig bge2 up

root@obms3-com-indianapolis-in:/root# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
bge0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 172.20.10.23 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.20.10.255
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2d
bge1: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 3
inet 10.14.5.70 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.14.5.255
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2e
bge2: flags=1000803<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 4
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000
ether 0:14:4f:55:a4:2f

After I 'ifconfig bge2 down' on the other box I can no longer get the interface to go into a running state after unplumbing it with the origional command 'ifconfig bge2 plumb up' where it worked the first time. So now this box is in the same state as my other one. Weird huh?

4

Wow problem solved. This is a remote site in Indianapolis and I am in Michigan. Someone unplugged the ethernet cable. So when you bring the interface up and it has no link the kernel will take it out of a running state. So I spent 6 hours troubleshooting a down link, good stuff...

Thank you for the quick reply.