Components of an interfaces file entry

Table 20-2 describes the components of an interfaces file entry.

**Table 20-2: Components of an interfaces file**
Component	Value
servername	Name of instance or Backup Server. Requirements for a server name are: The name cannot be more than 30 characters long. The first character must be a letter (ASCII a through z, A through Z). The characters that follow must be letters, numbers, or underscores (_).
retry_attempts (optional)	Number of times you want the client to try to connect to a server after initial failure. Default is 0.
delay_interval (optional)	Number of seconds between connection attempts. Default is 0.
service_type	Type of service defined by entry. Must be one of the following: master query
api	Application programming interface available to the network.The supported value is tli.
protocol	Name of the network protocol. Protocol types available are: TCP/IP, represented by the letters “tcp”
network	Name of the network; not currently used by the Cluster Edition. sybcluster enters “ether” as a placeholder.
host	Network name or address of server’s host machine. For TCP/IP, use either the host name or Internet address. Maximum size of entry is 32 bytes. To determine the host name of a machine, log in to that machine and enter: /bin/hostname
machine	Network name or address of server’s host machine. You can use either the host name or Internet address. Maximum size of entry is 32 bytes. To determine the host name of a machine, log in to that machine and enter: /bin/hostname
device	The network device endpoint. For TCP networks, the device varies according to the vendor supplying the networking software. Check the vendor-specific documentation for the name of the device. Your network may provide multiple stream devices corresponding to different protocols in the TCP protocol suite. Choose the TCP streams device. Common TCP streams devices is /dev/tcp.
address for a TLI protocol entry	Address consists of: Address prefix, “\x” for TLI. Network type, always 0002. Port number converted to four digits, hexadecimal. Must be a unique number between 1025 and 65535. Check the /etc/services file on each machine on the network to see what port numbers are in use. Enter the instance port number in a new section of /etc/services labeled “Sybase specific services.” You do not have to make this entry for the operating system to function properly, but the presence of the port number in the file may prevent other users from using the port number. IP network node address of the host machine converted to 8 digits, hexadecimal. Trailing zeros, optional, 16 digits.
port	A unique port number between 1025 and 65535. Check the /etc/services file on each machine on the network to see what port numbers are in use. Enter the instance port number in a new section of /etc/services labeled “Sybase specific services.” You do not have to make this entry for the operating system to function properly, but the presence of the port number in the file may prevent other users from using that port number.
ha_failover	An entry created in directory services or the interfaces file for high availability.
filter	The Cluster Edition supports Secure Socket Layers (SSL) as a filter which is appended to the master and query lines of the directory services. SSL is the standard for securing the transmission of sensitive information. For more information about SSL, see “Using SSL in a clustered environment”.