On 1/14/2014 19:10, John R Pierce wrote: > On 1/14/2014 5:55 PM, Warren Young wrote: >> 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. > > that forces it to bind to the same interface. but when you're doing a > virgin install, its fairly unlikely you'll know what the MAC's are or > which port it will pick to be eth0 and the setup will pick them fairly > arbitrarily (bus enumeration order, typically) Yes, we've had that problem, too. Motherboard model A from Most Favored Manufacturer will put eth0 on the left, then model B replaces it, and eth0 is now on the right. We figure this out during setup, then label the ports. If we decide we really want eth0 and eth1 swapped, we swap the HWADDR lines between the ifcfg files.