How to Setup Multicast Address on Solaris 2.6 (Back to the well again)

Question

          Basic Cluster Query,
          Several weeks ago, I was thrashing about trying to verify the syntax for setting
          up a multicast address on Solaris 2.6 in preparation for implementing Weblogic
          6.0 clustering. The command syntax was:
          ifconfig {interface}:{virtual#} plumb
          ifconfig {interface}:{virtual#} {multicast_address} up
          The commands succeeded on the first and second servers without errors, but unbeknownst
          to me there were errors reported on the second host concerning duplicate address.
          The errors were:
          unix: WARNING: IP: Hardware address '08:00:20:a6:ed:0a'
          trying to be our address 237.000.000.008!
          The server halted today after several weeks; however, it is not clear whether
          the multicast address caused the halt. Neither Weblogic nor Sun documentation
          have been helpful. Can anyone provide guidance on setting up multicast address
          on Solaris 2.6?
          Bewildered,
          Dan
          

Answer 1

Dan,
          I don't think that BEA specifically takes any stand regarding the
          configuration of operating systems. The problem is that the
          administration of Unix machines and networking is a very complex and
          sensitive subject for most companies (e.g., they have entire departments
          dedicated to this) and BEA tries not to enforce any more configuration
          specifications than it has to.
          With regards to multicast, most newer versions of the major operating
          systems (including Solaris) have support for multicast turned on "out of
          the box". However, it is possible for your administrator to muck around
          with your machine's network settings so that multicast does not work
          properly or is disabled entirely. Most people in BEA support do not
          know enough about low-level Unix TCP/IP administration to be able to
          properly guide you to "configure multicast" if it is not working
          properly. Even if they did, we wouldn't know what your administrator
          might have done or why they did what they did so it is generally best to
          get your Unix administrators involved because they really (should) have
          the knowledge of the machine's configuration.
          We do, however, provide a Java utility program called
          utils.MulticastTest that can help you to determine whether or not
          multicast is working correctly on your machine.
          Hope this helps,
          Robert
          Dan wrote:
          > Dennis,
          >
          > Thank you for the reply. I have tried working through the support line and
          > even opened a case, but BEA will not provide any guidance on system or platform
          > specific multicast addressing. They wouldn't even confirm the fact that "nothing"
          > had to be done in Solaris; however, I did not mention your comments. I don't
          > know why BEA takes such a position for common or well known architectures like
          > Solaris, AIX, or HP/UX. Thanks again for your comments.
          >
          > Sincerely,
          > Dan
          >
          >
          > "Dennis Munsie" <[email protected]> wrote:
          >
          >>Hi,
          >>
          >>Multicast addresses do not need to be set from the command line. Multicast
          >>addresses are independent of the normal IP address for an interface,
          >>and
          >>they are specified programatically when a socket is opened.
          >>
          >>--
          >>Dennis Munsie
          >>Developer Relations Engineer
          >>BEA Support
          >>
          >>"Dan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
          >>news:[email protected]...
          >>
          >>>Basic Cluster Query,
          >>>
          >>> Several weeks ago, I was thrashing about trying to verify the syntax
          >>>
          >>for
          >>setting
          >>
          >>>up a multicast address on Solaris 2.6 in preparation for implementing
          >>>
          >>Weblogic
          >>
          >>>6.0 clustering. The command syntax was:
          >>>
          >>> ifconfig {interface}:{virtual#} plumb
          >>> ifconfig {interface}:{virtual#} {multicast_address} up
          >>>
          >>>The commands succeeded on the first and second servers without errors,
          >>>
          >>but
          >>unbeknownst
          >>
          >>>to me there were errors reported on the second host concerning duplicate
          >>>
          >>address.
          >>
          >>> The errors were:
          >>>
          >>> unix: WARNING: IP: Hardware address '08:00:20:a6:ed:0a'
          >>> trying to be our address 237.000.000.008!
          >>>
          >>>The server halted today after several weeks; however, it is not clear
          >>>
          >>whether
          >>
          >>>the multicast address caused the halt. Neither Weblogic nor Sun
          >>>
          >>documentation
          >>
          >>>have been helpful. Can anyone provide guidance on setting up multicast
          >>>
          >>address
          >>
          >>>on Solaris 2.6?
          >>>
          >>>Bewildered,
          >>> Dan
          >>>
          >>
          >