A Network Adapter's Name is Set to "rename <number>" after a Hardware Replacement or a Change in the Udev Network Rules

Asset ID:	1-72-2095346.1
Update Date:	2018-04-23
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 2095346.1 : A Network Adapter's Name is Set to "rename " after a Hardware Replacement or a Change in the Udev Network Rules

Applies to:

Linux OS - Version Enterprise Linux 3.0 and later
Oracle VM - Version 3.1.1 and later
Private Cloud Appliance - Version 1.0.1 and later
Exadata X6-8 Hardware - Version All Versions and later
Linux x86-64

Symptoms

After replacing a motherboard or a network card on Oracle Linux, Oracle VM or Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, the ethernet adapter(s)'s name will no longer be correct according to Network Interface naming scheme, listed as "rename<number>":

# ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
2: em1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,SLAVE,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master bond0 state UP qlen 1000
link/ether 98:90:96:ba:4b:74 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: rename3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN qlen 1000
link/ether 68:05:ca:2f:02:a0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

The “ifconfig -a“ command (deprecated in latest Linux) also lists this interface as renameXX :

# ifconfig -a
[...]
rename3 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 68:05:CA:2F:02:A0
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:18 Memory:f7dc0000-f7de0000

Note: Manually altering the udev rules can also yield this kind of issue.

Cause

Oracle Linux 6 and 7, OVM 3.3+ :

File /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules is provisioned by the udev daemon has two entries with the same name used twice for two different network interfaces, one of which possibly being the previous one before hardware replacement:

# PCI device 0x8086:0x10d3 (e1000e) (custom name provided by external tool)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="68:05:ca:2f:03:69", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="p4p1"

# PCI device 0x8086:0x153a (e1000e) (custom name provided by external tool)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="98:90:96:ba:4b:74", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="em1"

# PCI device 0x8086:0x10d3 (e1000e)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="68:05:ca:2f:02:a0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="p4p1"

Oracle Linux 5, OVM 3.2 :

For OVM 3.2 and Oracle Linux 5, the following file has an issue and should be edited instead :

/etc/udev/rules.d/60-net.rules

And use the following kind of rules :

# ixgbe
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="90:E2:BA:43:39:68", NAME="eth0"
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="90:E2:BA:43:39:69", NAME="eth1"
#others
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="00:10:E0:0E:32:5C", NAME="eth2"
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="00:10:E0:0E:32:5D", NAME="eth3"
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="00:10:E0:0E:32:5E", NAME="eth4"
KERNEL=="eth*", SYSFS{address}=="00:10:E0:0E:32:5F", NAME="eth5"

Solution

Manually correct file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules (or /etc/udev/rules.d/60-net.rules if OL5 / OVM3.2) and the associated /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* file, reboot system.

References

<NOTE:1586190.1> - NIC MAC Address Change Is Needed On Oracle VM Server When Replacing System Board
<BUG:24927041> - UDEV RENAME FAILS CONFUSING RDS AND PREVENTING CRS STARTUP

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