On Wednesday, 08/02/2006 at 02:11 EST, Dennis Schaffer 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Please understand that each of my OSA adapters are connected to 
different
> IP subnets (because, my network folks say, that provides optimum
> redundancy:  completely different network hardware, from the OSA to the
> switches/routers, etc., all down the line).

IMO that capability is better provided by trunked switches with backup 
OSAs connected to each switch.  All in a single set of subnets that span 
physical switches.  That moves all the routing decisions down into the 
switch/router where it belongs.

> As a result, I'm not sure the physical redundancy automatically 
supported
> by VSWITCH will really work for my installation.  The examples I've seen
> with automatic VSWITCH failover seem to assume all OSAs are connected to
> the same IP subnet.

If the OSA is plugged into a trunk port, then it can carry data for 
multiple subnets.  This is what VLANs are all about.  The assumption is 
that all OSA ports associated with a VSWITCH have access to the same 
subnets/VLANs.

> With that in mind, it seems that moving the network connection of 
multiple
> zLinux systems to VSWITCH moves the routing function from a single IP 
stack
> (VM TCPIP) to each of the zLinux instances.  Thats the additional
> management and automation I referred to in my previous note.  Also, I'm 
not
> sure the combined overhead of running OSPF in each zLinux instance won't 
be
> greater than handling all routing from one stack.
> 
> Am I off-base (at least in regards to this question)?

IMO, you don't need dynamic routing in the guest - you need a robust 
switch and VLAN implementation.

Alan Altmark
z/VM Development
IBM Endicott

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