The following diagram shows two virtual networks (vnet0 and vnet1) connected to separate virtual switch instances (vsw0 and vsw1) in the service domain, which in turn use two different physical interfaces. The physical interfaces are nxge0 and nxge1 in Oracle Solaris 10 and net0 and net1 in Oracle Solaris 11. The diagram shows the Oracle Solaris 10 physical interface names.
If a physical link failure occurs in the service domain, the virtual switch device that is bound to that physical device detects the link failure. Then, the virtual switch device propagates the failure to the corresponding virtual network device that is bound to this virtual switch. The virtual network device sends notification of this link event to the IP layer in the guest LDom_A, which results in failover to the other virtual network device in the IPMP group.
Figure 8-7 Two Virtual Networks Connected to Separate Virtual Switch Instances
You can achieve further reliability in the logical domain by connecting each virtual network device (vnet0 and vnet1) to virtual switch instances in different service domains, as shown in the following diagram. In this case, in addition to physical network failure, LDom_A can detect virtual network failure and trigger a failover following a service domain crash or shutdown.
Figure 8-8 Virtual Network Devices Each Connected to Different Service Domains