Unable to enable em1 interface on a Dell R720xd server running rhel 7

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I'm having trouble enabling a em1 (1 Gbps) interface on RHEL 7. When trying to do so, I lose the connectivity to the machine and have to restart or access it via the console

ifdown em1

ifup em1

===> lose connectivity and need to reboot the server (console doesn't show the GUI/desktop) :(

I've tried to delete the configuration file from /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1 and recreate it. No progress.

# ifconfig em1
em1: flags=4098<BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether f8:bc:12:4d:f3:00  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 35  

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1
TYPE=Ethernet
BOOTPROTO=static
DEVICE=em1
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=172.39.0.31
NETMASK=255.255.255.0

Notes:

  1. The Link status on iDRAC shows up as UP but the ethtool reports that Link status is 'no' (meaning the link is down)
  2. NetworkManager is stopped and disabled.
  3. Few details about the the interface configuration:
# ethtool -a em1
Pause parameters for em1:
Autonegotiate:  on
RX:     on
TX:     on

# ethtool -i em1
driver: tg3
version: 3.137
firmware-version: FFV7.8.16 bc 5720-v1.32
bus-info: 0000:01:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: no

Additionally, here's an output from the ip a command

2: em1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether f8:bc:12:4d:f3:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Can someone help please?

sa

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