Nick Holland wrote:

quoted text
> Gregory Edigarov wrote:

>

>> Hello Everybody,

>>

>> Supposing I have several identical NIC's in my server, can I predict

>> which become int0, which become int1, etc?

>>

>> A link to document explaining (or man something) would absolutely suffice.

>> Thank you.

>>

>

> Not Easily, at least if you are referring to a machine you know nothing

> about and haven't powered up yet.  However, it is easy to make simple

> tests to find out.

>

> Assuming PCI, they go by order of the slots in the bus, which isn't

> something OpenBSD controls.  Many machines have curious orders.

> For example, I have a Dell GX1 which has five PCI slots; the order

> is something like:  2 3 4 0 1.  (To add insult to injury, I had four

> port NICs in every slot, took a while to find dc0! :)

>

> Now, once I know (er.. knew.  The above sequence is from non-ECC and

> proven faulty memory!) the pattern of slots in a GX1, I can know which

> NIC will get which identifier.

>

> If I put int(4) NICs in slots 3 and 1, the one in slot 1 will be int0,

> the one in slot 3 will be int1.  Now, if I move the NIC from slot 1

> into slot 4, they will switch IDs.  If I replace the NIC in slot 3

> with a NIC of the same type (driver-wise, that is), nothing will

> change.  If I remove int0 and replace it with a different driver, int1

> will become int0.

>

> How did I identify the slot order in the machine?  Stuck identical NICs

> in all slots.  Why did I do that?  Because I stuck three NICs in the

> thing and the ordering was not obvious, so I figured I better get to

> know this machine better.

>

> In all cases, the dmesg will link your MACs to physical IDs, so stick

> the MAC addr on the spine of the card.

>

> In most cases, ifconfig will show you which NICs have link in real time,

> so an easy way to identify things is drop to shell, plug in one cable,

> run ifconfig and see which has link.  Label.  Move cable, repeat until

> done.

>

> None of this is applicable to ISA or USB NICs.  It may be applicable

> to other buses and platforms.

>

> Moral:

>   1) Know your HW

>   2) Label the MAC address on your NICs

>   3) Have identical replacement HW in case a non-OpenBSD expert has to

> do a swap,

>   4) Know how to reconfig your system if you have to change your NICs.

>   5) Practice, Practice, Practice

>   6) Drop to shell before install, look around.

>

> Nick.

>

>

>

I.e. they depend on the PCI slot they inserted, if I get you correct.

Well, thank you for so in-depth explanation, but what I meant really

was: is it guaranteed that if one take a card from the server and then

install the other card of the same make to the same slot, it will have

the same id?

I will do more research about it , however.... :-)

The best thing however would be to have the ability to set the name of

an intreface based on it's mac address, perhaps somebody is working on

it/having it on the todo list?
--

With best regards,

    Gregory Edigarov