Link aggregation and sub VLANs!

Today I have installed two brand new IBM DataPower Gateways 8436 appliances. A few interesting points from that experience:

1. There are a few changes that should be applied to port configuration, prior connecting to the console for the first time. I had to make those changes both to the driver and to putty configuration.
2. Both 10-gigabit interfaces were link-aggregated (Link Aggregation feature is available with DataPower appliances as of firmware v7) in transmit mode and two sub VLAN interfaces were configured on top of it. This enabled active-active high availability mode cross network interfaces within the same appliances. Guess what - it worked!

PS. My first physical IDG appliances! My first link aggregation! My first sub VLANs!

Bibliography:

1. DataPower firmware v7 announcement letter
2. Firmware v7 - Link aggregation and networking enhancements (PDF)
3. Connecting to the serial console of a DataPower Gateway Appliance
4. How to connect Datapower serial console using PC in windows platform?