[CentOS] eth0 killed when adding virtual interface and multiple NICs are present

[Les Mikesell]

JohnS wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-04-25 at 14:52 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
>> JohnS wrote:
>>> On Sat, 2009-04-25 at 20:33 +0200, Kai Schaetzl wrote:
>>>> I have a strange problem on one machine where eth0 gets killed when I add 
>>>> a virtual interface. It's got something to do with the NIC ordering or 
>>>> with the xen network script having a problem with multiple NICs and 
>>>> virtual interfaces. I could need some help/comments on this.
>>>>
>>>> Some history:
>>>> I added a NIC (chip identifies as Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
>>>> RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet) to a Dell R200 server.
>>>> CentOS 5.3 with Xen 3.3.1 (gitco repo). 
>>> ----
>>> see this:
>>> http://linux.dell.com/files/whitepapers/nic-enum-whitepaper-v3.pdf
>>>
>>> This is a known issue with all Poweredge Servers. It will give you an
>>> explanation and workaround for it.
>> I don't think there is anything unique to Dells about this.  The kernel 
>> essentially randomizes device naming on everything.  Dell just took the 
>> trouble to document it.
> ---
> 
> Also: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=491432
> Seems to apply to Kais case.
> 
> You *must* specify the HWADDR field in the ifcfg-* files in order to
> have persistent ethernet naming. Was the way I done it on dell hardware
> and it states that on the Bug Report.

I've had my ifcfg-* files renamed to ifcfg-*.bak files and ignored 
completely when moving drives, even among identical hardware.  It's no 
fun when shipping to remote locations where the on-site people don't 
know much about linux.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com