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

Sat Apr 25 20:22:39 UTC 2009
JohnS <jses27 at gmail.com>

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.
----
>From what I understand this was only with dell hardware that this was
happening and they submitted a patch to red hat. Also it is the only
hardware I have encountered with the problem also. There could be
others.

What's more is Kai says he's running 5.3 but the fix should be in that
kernel. What I do wonder is if when the centos kernel was built, was it
included? Maybe the CentOS Kernel builder could let us know? 

2.6.19-rc3 and higher are supposed to have the fix?

It is however a strange thing when you encounter it. I pulled my hair
for a long time.

Last thing is he has this problem on a R200 and from memory those were
not a problem. Could be this is something new? He could check for a BIOS
Revision if there is one.

JohnStanley