Managing Network Datalinks in Oracle^® Solaris 11.4

Information the LLDP Agent Advertises

The LLDP agent transmits system and connectivity information in the LLDP packets or LLDPDUs. These packets contain information units that are individually formatted in TLV format. The information units are also called TLV units.

Mandatory TLV Units

Certain TLV units are mandatory and are included in the LLDP packets by default when LLDP is enabled. You cannot use the lldpadm command to exclude any of these units.

The following TLV units are mandatory:

• Chassis ID – Information that is generated by the hostid command

• Port ID – MAC address of the physical NIC

• TTL (time to live)

• End of protocol data unit (PDU)

Multiple LLDP agents can be enabled on a single system depending on the number of links. The chassis ID and port ID combination uniquely identifies an agent and distinguishes it from other agents on the system.

Example 32  Displaying the Chassis ID and Port ID

The following example displays the chassis ID and port ID for an LLDP agent.

$ hostid 
004e434e

$ dladm show-phys -m net4
LINK                SLOT     ADDRESS            INUSE CLIENT
net4                primary  0:1b:21:87:8b:b4   yes   net4

$ lldpadm show-agent -l net4
AGENT               CHASSISID           PORTID
net4                004e434e            00:1b:21:87:8b:b4

Oracle Solaris LLDP agents use hostid as the chassis ID and the port's MAC address as the port ID.

Optional TLV Units

Optional TLV units can be added to an LLDP packet. These optional TLV units enable vendors to insert vendor-specific TLV units to be advertised. LLDP enables defining additional TLV units by using organization unique identifiers (OUIs). An OUI identifies the category for a TLV unit depending on whether the OUI follows the IEEE 802.1 or IEEE 802.3 standard. The LLDP agent properties can be configured to enable or disable the transmission of these optional TLV units.

The following table lists each TLV group, its corresponding name, and the TLV units for each property, and their descriptions. You configure any one of these properties to specify the TLV units to be included in the packets when LLDP is enabled.

Table 1  Optional TLV Units for an LLDP Agent

TLV Group TLV Name TLV units Description Basic management basic-tlv sysname, portdesc, syscapab, sysdesc, mgmtaddr Specifies the system name, port description, system capability, system description, and management address to be advertised. 802.1 OUI dot1-tlv vlanname, pvid, linkaggr, pfc, appln, evb, etscfg, etsreco Specifies the following to be advertised: VLAN name, port VLAN ID, link aggregation, TLV units for priority-based flow control, application, enhanced transmission selection, and edge virtual bridging. 802.3 OUI dot3-tlv max-framesize Specifies the maximum frame size to be advertised. Oracle specific OUI (which is defined as 0x0003BA) virt-tlv vnic Specifies the VNIC to be advertised if a virtual network is configured.

TLV Unit Properties

Each TLV unit has properties that you can further configure with specific values. If the TLV unit is enabled as an LLDP agent's property, then that TLV unit is advertised in the network only with the specified values. For example, consider the TLV unit syscapab, which advertises a system's capabilities. These capabilities can potentially include support for routers, bridges, repeaters, telephones, and other devices. However, you can set syscapab so that only those capabilities that are actually supported on your specific system, such as routers and bridges, are advertised.

The procedure for configuring TLV units depends on whether you are configuring global TLV units or per-agent TLV units. For information about how to configure TLV units, see Specifying TLV Units and Values for the LLDP Packet of an Agent.

Global TLV units apply to all LLDP agents on the system. The following table lists the global TLV units and their corresponding possible configurations.

Table 2  Global TLV Units and Their Properties

TLV Unit Property Name Possible Property Values Value Description syscapab supported other, repeater, bridge, wlan-ap, router, telephone, docsis-cd, station, cvlan, sylvan, tpmr Represents the primary supported functions of the system. Default values are router, station, and bridge. enabled Subset of the values listed for supported Represents the enabled functions of the system. mgmtaddr ipaddr ipv4 or ipv6 Specifies the type of IP addresses that are associated with the local LLDP agent. The addresses are used to reach higher layer entities and assist in discovery by network management. Only one type can be specified.

TLV units that are specific to LLDP agent are managed on a per-agent basis. With per-agent TLV units, the values that you provide are used when the TLV unit is enabled for transmission by a specific LLDP agent.

The following table lists the TLV values and their corresponding possible configurations for an LLDP agent.

Table 3  Per-Agent TLV Units and Their Properties

TLV Unit Property Name Possible Property Values Value Description pfc willing on, off Sets an LLDP agent to accept or reject configuration information from a remote system that pertains to priority-based flow control. appln apt Values are taken from the information that is defined in the Application Priority Table. Configures the Application Priority Table. This table contains the list of application TLV units and their corresponding priorities. The application is identified by the id/selector pair. The contents of the table use the following format: id/selector/priority For more information, see Application Priority Configurations. etscfg willing on, off Sets an LLDP agent to accept or reject configuration information from a remote system that pertains to enhanced transmission selection.

For information about per-agent TLV units, see Managing Converged Networks by Using Data Center Bridging.