[openib-general] IPoIB Loading and Starting

[Roland Dreier]

    Michael> I would have thought this would be part of the IP over IB
    Michael> driver.  Communicate with the SM to acquire the P_Key and
    Michael> then use that to perform Arp / ND.  Strange to require a
    Michael> command since this gets a bit cumbersome when there are
    Michael> many nodes in the fabric.

That is a nice idea in theory but it falls down in practice.  First,
the IPoIB driver is often loaded during the boot process, and init
scripts may want to configure IPoIB interfaces before the SM has
discovered the local node.  Also, a node may have many P_Keys
assigned, only a few of which are used for IP traffic.  Administrators
don't like to have to deal with 50+ network devices.

Thanks,
  Roland