Why are network interfaces not ordered correctly?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Why are network interfaces not ordered correctly?
  • In previous versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, ifindex values were in order with ethX names:
# cd /sys/class/net
# cat eth0/ifindex eth1/ifindex eth2/ifindex eth3/ifindex 
2
3
4
5
#
  • In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 it is different:
# cd /sys/class/net
# cat eth0/ifindex eth1/ifindex eth2/ifindex eth3/ifindex 
4
5
2
3
# 
  • The ip addr command display does not display the NIC in names order, but ifconfig does. Is it possible to have this ordered alphabetically? What is this ordered by?

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Network interfaces

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