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Solaris ifconfig

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This command is located in the /usr/sbin directory. The ifconfig command most commonly used to display information about the configuration of the network interface specified:

ifconfig hme0

If used by the superuser, the ifconfig command can configure all network interface parameters. On Solaris 9 the /etc/rcS.d/S30 network script uses it at boot to define the network address of each interface present on a machine. The /etc/rc2.d/S72inetsvc script also uses it later in the boot to reset any network interface configurations set by NIS/NIS+. The ifconfig command can also be used to redefine an interface's IP address or parameters.

Some examples of the ifconfig command are as follows:

Network Interface Configuration Examples

Displaying the IP Address

The ifconfig command displays the current configuration for a network interface. With the -a option, the ifconfig command displays the current configuration for all network interfaces in the system.

# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
hme0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 192.168.30.41 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.30.255
ether 8:0:20:93:c9:af

The previous example shows that:

 Marking an Ethernet Interface as Down

When an Ethernet interface is marked as down, it means that it cannot communicate. You can use the ifconfig command to mark an Ethernet interface as up or down. For example, to mark the hme0 interface as down, perform the commands:

# ifconfig hme0 down && ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
hme0: flags=1000842<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 192.168.30.41 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.30.255
ether 8:0:20:93:c9:af

Note – The UP flags are no longer present. When an interface is flagged as UP, it is ready to communicate.

Controlling and Monitoring Network Interfaces

The following example shows that when you mark an interface as up, the UP status appears in the flags field of the ifconfig command output:

# ifconfig hme0 up
# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
hme0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 192.168.30.41 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.30.255
ether 8:0:20:93:c9:af
Sending ICMP ECHO_REQUEST Packets
To determine if you can contact another system over the network, enter
the ping command:
# ping sys41
sys41 is alive

A response of no answer from sys41 indicates that you cannot contact host sys41. This ims a problem with host sys41, or a problem with the network.

For the ping command to succeed, the following conditions must be satisfied:

Reference

The ifconfig command is used on Solaris (unix) machines to assign an address to a network interface or to configure your network interface. During system startup, ifconfig is called to define the network address of each interface present on your Solaris machine. ifconfig may also be used to redefine a network interface's address or other operating parameters, or to display the current configuration on an interface.

Syntax: ifconfig interface options

ifconfig example configuring a 3com network interface card:

ifconfig elxl0 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 broadcast 10.255.255.255

Where elxl0 is the interface with an ip address of 10.0.0.1, a netmask of 255.0.0.0, and a broadcast address of 10.255.255.255

Partial list of options taken from the man pages:

Solaris 10 Reference Manual Collection >> man pages section 1M: System Administration Commands >> System Administration Commands >> ifconfig(1M) – configure network interface parameters

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

OPERANDS

INTERFACE FLAGS

LOGICAL INTERFACES

MULTIPATHING GROUPS

CONFIGURING IPv6 INTERFACES

EXAMPLES

FILES

ATTRIBUTES

SEE ALSO

DIAGNOSTICS

NOTES

SunOS 5.10  Last Revised 26 Aug 2004

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Last modified: August 29, 2008