RE: Network interface name

[Greg Hosler <greg hosler per sg>]

On 23-Dec-2004 penguin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a server with two network interfaces.
> Both of network cards are the products made from Broadcom.
> 1st network Interface name's is eth0.
> 2st network Interface name's is eth1.
> 
> I want to change the 1st network interface name into eth1, 
> and to change the 2nd network interface name into eth0.
> Is this possible?

it depends.

if the 2 NIC's use the same driver (i.e. module), then the answer is "no".
(Ed's answer about the HWADDR is irrelevant. HWADDR is used to *set* the
MAC address of a NIC, not to match up a device with a certain MAC address).

On the other hand, if your 2 NIC's happen to use DIFFERENT drivers/modules,
then you're in luck. Go to /etc/modules.conf; in there you will see 2 lines

        alias eth0=<1st module>
        alias eth1=<2nd module>

merely switch the modules for the 2 ethernet cards. It is then easiest to
reboot, but you can probably avoid a reboot by doing the following:

        service network stop
        *now so the switch, not before*
        rmmod <1st module>
        rmmod <2nd module>
        service network start

You may, or may not, need to edit the files in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
(i.e. the ifconfig-eth# files), in order to move the network settings from one
to the other, if that happens to be your end goal.)

best rgds,

-Greg

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| Greg Hosler                                   greg hosler per sg    |
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