Enabling the creation of a physical connection for a shared MAC address

The IP Manager perceives each interface found in the ifTable of a discovered device as being a physical interface, meaning that the IP Manager does not distinguish between physical and virtual interfaces. Thus, when the IP Manager detects multiple interfaces (one physical and the others virtual) that share the same MAC address, it perceives the condition as an error and subsequently removes the “LayeredOver/Underlying” relationships between the interfaces and the MAC address—relationships that the IP Manager created initially for each interface that it found in the ifTable. Without a LayeredOver/Underlying relationship between the physical interface and the MAC address, the IP Manager will not create the network connection for the physical interface during the postprocessing phase of the discovery process.

By identifying the virtual interfaces for a device in the IfVirtualTypePattern parameter, a user changes the behavior of the IP Manager in the following way: The IP Manager will not create LayeredOver/Underlying relationships between these interfaces and the underlying MAC address. Accordingly, the LayeredOver/Underlying relationship between the physical interface and the underlying MAC address will not be removed, and the network connection for the physical interface will be created during the postprocessing phase of the discovery process.

The IfVirtualTypePattern parameter is described in the Other interface-limiting parameter types table in the VMware Smart Assurance IP Manager Reference Guide.