On 1/14/2014 18:23, John R Pierce wrote: > On 1/14/2014 5:17 PM, Warren Young wrote: >> I don't know about "less consistent", but I always considered it a >> feature in Linux vs the BSDs or big iron Unix that I could always count >> on the first network interface being "eth0". BSD and big iron Unix >> named the interface after the Ethernet driver, as if that was what was >> important. > > conversely, it wasn't always consistent WHICH NIC would be eth0. Had > several x86 servers with dual integral nic's where eth0/eth1 were > swapped relative to what RHEL/CentOS thought they were. I know the problem you mean, but doesn't the HWADDR setting in the ifcfg-ethX file fix the problem? Doesn't that force "ifup eth0" to bind that file's settings to the right physical interface? In the old days, ifcfg-ethX didn't have HWADDR, so "first" was somewhat unpredictable, as you say.