[Gllug] NICs on RHEL 4.0

[damion.yates at gmail.com]

On Wed, 8 Nov 2006, Yashpal Nagar wrote:

> I have a Redhat Enterprise linux 4.0 with two NICs on a DL320, 32
> bit arch HP server.

So that's basically like the free fedora but you've chosen to pay for
support ?

> Problem is every reboot the interface eth0 flips over to the other
> physical interface and then i have to physically  move the cable to
> other interface.
> 
> I get the following on console.  Nov  8 12:29:40 servername ifup:
> Device eth0 has different MAC address than expected, ignoring.
 
> What i have tried:
> 1. By specifying the HWADDR keyword in ifcfg-eth0 but no luck.
> 2. i have also tried putting BOOTPROTO=none and placing the
> /sbin/ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:0B:CD:4E:31:C1 in /etc/rc.d/rc/local
> and then restart the network interface as told at
> 
> http: //www.redhat.com/archives/redhat-list/2003-April/msg02721.html
> http: //whoozoo.co.uk/mac-spoof-linux.htm 
> but still same problem.
> 
> The both NIC is NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet.
> 
> Any pointer/hack would be highly appreciated.

I typed "if rename linux eth0" in to google and a top link returned
was:

http://www.science.uva.nl/research/air/wiki/LogicalInterfaceNam

I think this answers your question in great detail.

This actual query is one I used to ask when interviewing for sysadmins
as the rules for what order a card is picked up varied as in different
releases of Linux, so it would show how long the candidate had used
Linux and if they'd had to deal with this before.  Old (1.* or 2.0.*)
kernels, assuming cards using the same driver, would base it on lowest
interupt first, sadly PnP mess or random firmware startups from cold,
or warm reboot could move this.

If you do follow this Wiki page and force your cards to the right name
at startup, you could place commands post normal boot, in to rc.local
this is distribution independant if a little kludgy.  It wouldn't be
ideal for a system which was to stay secure, as for a few moments at
boot it could have configured an Internet side interface open due to
moving network cards, before iptables settings are re-initialised in
your own crafted post boot startup.

There will be different distribution dependant ways of sorting this
and to do this the Redhat way it's best to ask them.

Damion

-- 
Damion Yates - damion.yates at gmail.com
mobile: +44 (0) 7801 741582
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