Adding a NIC

[Matt Domsch]

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 09:52:25AM -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> As to how the cards are enumerated...unless the system was installed
> with the new NIC already there, it depends on how the mobo scans the
> buses.  For example, on Dell 2950s, the on-board NICs are seen first,
> followed by the PCI cards.  On the (more or less equivalent) Dell
> 1950s, PCI NICs are seen before the on-board NICs.  Go figure.
> 
> Once they're found and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX scripts
> are created, the HWADDR in those files pretty much keeps things tied
> together.  If you stuff in a new NIC, it _should_ be the next one in
> sequence, regardless which bus it's on as the system generally honors
> existing configs (note I said "generally").

<shameless plug>
A whitepaper I wrote about this problem:
http://linux.dell.com/files/whitepapers/nic-enum-whitepaper-v4.pdf

http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/3/24/357

http://lwn.net/Articles/356900/

My team is currently trying to get code added to be able to use
additional, prettier names, such as "Embedded_NIC_1", to refer to the
device names silkscreened on the chassis.  The threads above show
we've been trying to get better solutions into the kernel and userspace for
several years...

</shameless plug>

--
Matt Domsch
Technology Strategist
Dell | Office of the CTO