Host Ethernet Adapter

The Host Ethernet Adapter is available in two versions: 2-port and 4-port.

The 2-port and 4-port versions have the following characteristics:

Each Host Ethernet Adapter physical port supports a maximum of 16 logical ports.
A 2-port Host Ethernet Adapter supports a maximum of 16 logical ports, because both ports share a single cable group.
If there are four ports, then two ports share the 16 logical ports for each port group for a total of 32 logical ports. Each logical partition can have one logical port for each physical port, and you cannot assign a logical port number to a physical port or logical partition. You can assign the logical port ID to the physical port, but the system assigns the actual port number.

Some systems can have up to four Host Ethernet Adapter ports, one for each drawer. Logical partitions using Host Ethernet Adapter resources cannot be migrated.

Note: The Host Ethernet Adapter only functions on full duplex networks.

For more information about the Host Ethernet Adapter and logical partitioning, see Logical partition overview.

The 5706, 5707, 5767, and 5768 adapters do not require an IOP and are supported with an Operations Console.

When the system is not managed by an HMC, the system will default Operations Console (LAN) to be the first physical port. This is usually the top or right-most port.