How to set persistent NIC device name with PCI slot via udev instead of MAC address in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6

Issue

  • Is it possible to create custom udev rules to use the PCI address of network card for persistent naming instead of the MAC address?

Resolution

  • First make sure the standard biosdevname feature will not fulfill your needs. More information is at Solution 159723

    • Ensure that console access is available in the event there are issues impacting connectivity during this process

    • If biosdevname does not meet your requirements, start by identifying the PCI address of your Ethernet interfaces with lspci

      # lspci -D | grep Ethernet
0000:03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
0000:03:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
0000:03:00.2 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)
0000:03:00.3 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01)

    • Create an /etc/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-net.rules as it needs to come before the RHEL generated 70-persistent-net.rules udev rule. Note the use of NAME:= to disallow later changes to value.

      # 0000:03:00.0 Ethernet controller: NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01) was eth0
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNELS=="0000:03:00.0", NAME:="primary"

# 0000:03:00.1 Ethernet controller: NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01) was eth1
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNELS=="0000:03:00.1", NAME:="app1"

# 0000:03:00.2 Ethernet controller: NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01) was eth2
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNELS=="0000:03:00.2", NAME:="app2"

# 0000:03:00.3 Ethernet controller: NetXtreme BCM5719 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01) was eth3
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNELS=="0000:03:00.3", NAME:="backup"

    • Modify /etc/sysconfig-network/scripts/ifcfg-* files to utilize new names in the DEVICE= value.

      # grep ^DEVICE= ifcfg-* | grep -v =lo$
ifcfg-app1:DEVICE="app1"
ifcfg-app2:DEVICE="app2"
ifcfg-backup:DEVICE="backup"
ifcfg-primary:DEVICE="primary"

    • Use udevadm to test rules to make sure name setting is working

      # udevadm test /class/net/eth0 2>&1 | grep NAME
udev_rules_apply_to_event: NAME 'primary' /etc/udev/rules.d/60-persistent-net.rules:2

  • Reboot the system and review that the changes have been made as expected.

NOTE: This was tested on system that is NOT using NetworkManager (ie. NM_CONTROLLED=no in ifcfg-* files)

Diagnostic Steps

Some Red Hat documents for reference:

Some public site references:

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