AIX UNIX: Enabling Jumbo Frames

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To enable jumbo frames on an AIX UNIX system, you can follow these steps:

  1. Check if your network adapter supports jumbo frames: To enable jumbo frames, you need to have a network adapter that supports it. You can check if your adapter supports jumbo frames by running the following command:
    entstat -d en0 | grep -i jumbo

    Replace en0 with the name of your network adapter.

    If your adapter supports jumbo frames, you should see an output similar to this:

    Jumbo Frames is enabled
  2. Configure jumbo frames: To configure jumbo frames, you need to set the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size to a value larger than the default MTU size of 1500 bytes. A common value for jumbo frames is 9000 bytes.

    To configure jumbo frames, you can use the chdev command. For example, to set the MTU size to 9000 for the en0 network adapter, you can run the following command:

    chdev -l en0 -a mtu=9000

    This will set the MTU size to 9000 for the en0 adapter.

  3. Verify jumbo frames are working: To verify that jumbo frames are working, you can use the ping command with the -D option, which sends a packet with the “Do Not Fragment” flag set. For example, to ping a remote host with an MTU of 9000 bytes, you can run the following command:
    ping -D -s 8972 <remote_host>

    Replace <remote_host> with the IP address or hostname of the remote host.

    The -s option specifies the packet size, which should be 28 bytes less than the MTU size (8972 = 9000 – 28). The -D option sets the “Do Not Fragment” flag.

    If jumbo frames are working, you should see a response from the remote host. If jumbo frames are not working, you may see a “packet too big” or “fragmentation needed” error message.

By following these steps, you should be able to enable jumbo frames on an AIX UNIX system.

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