I've currently got my server in my office trying to figure out some stuff in the BIOS (about C states and power efficiency) which means I have a monitor and keyboard directly attached. So it's an ideal time to change from using the onboard Realtek NIC to a four port Intel PCIe card I installed a few weeks ago.

 

I had a go at this last night and made a total cock of it. I ended up being unable to connect to Unraid Connect and unable to ping even Google. Having done a bit more research I think I understand that it's generally a bad idea to have two NIC's active at the same time, as in two pieces of hardware. Whereas a multi port PCIe card should be OK . . .  is that about right?

 

I think it is, because I only managed to get Connect working again (by signing out and back in several times plus restarts) by undoing all the changes I'd made to the 4 port NIC's settings and completely reverting to the Realtek NIC. Meaning currently all four ports on the Intel NIC are marked as 'shutdown (inactive)' in blue.

 

So what I think/hope will work is:

 

1) Go into the BIOS and turn off the onboard NIC, boot into Unraid. Stop Docker Services and VMs.

2) Go to Network Settings and check that - in the absence of the Realtek NIC - the Intel ports are now eth0 to eth3, when they're currently eth1 to eth4

3) Enable bonding between eth0 and eth1 and also bridging - I plan in future to have an LACP based LAG between my switch and Unraid - though right now I can only connect to eth0 via a dumb switch because my managed switch is in the server closet.

4) Enter the static IP I have assigned to the Intel eth0 MAC address in my router, so this IP becomes the new admin access IP for the Web UI.

5) Restart - maybe sign out of Connect and back in again.

 

Is it maybe a good idea to sign out of Connect as a step 0) in the above list?

 

Any pitfalls and problems I'm not seeing? Any other suggestions? Advice?

Thanks

 

BTW longer term the plan is to use eth2 passed through to a VM and eth3 as a dedicated port for security cameras - though currently I don't need to run a VM and haven't bought a single security camera, but that's the vague plan ATM.

 

PS If I change the IP assigned to the server will Unraid 'automagically' manage changes to the docker app to host port mappings? i.e. change for example the current 172.17.0.2:22000/TCP <----> 192.168.1.xx:22000 for Syncthing to  172.17.0.2:22000/TCP <----> 192.168.1.yy:22000. ?

 

Cheers

Edited October 6, 20232 yr by awediohead
added a bit

Unraid works best when the main NIC is eth0. So one option is to change the order of the NICs on Settings -> Network -> Interface Rules so the Intel is eth0 through eth3 and the Realtek is eth4.  But I think your plan of disabling the Realtek nic is better. In general, Realtek NICs have more issues than Intel NICs.

 

Complex bonding is possible, but requires your switch to be configured properly as well. Issues with this will be very difficult for you to troubleshoot as it is unlikely anyone else in the community has your same combination of hardware with the same config. If speed is important, as an alternative you might consider upgrading to a 2.5gb or 10gb switch with corresponding NICs.

 

I wouldn't expect Connect to need any special treatment throughout this, as long as eth0 is your main NIC.

 

> PS If I change the IP assigned to the server will Unraid 'automagically' manage changes to the docker app to host port mappings?

 

If Unraid set the IPs then I would expect the change to be automatic. Of course, anywhere that you manually typed the old IP would probably need to be manually updated.

Thanks very much! I feel I can go ahead now with a lot more confidence that I'm not about to do something dumb (again!)

 

I think I'll keep it simple and just swap the NICs to start off with. I should be able to add the LAG afterwards once the unraid box is back where it lives next to the switch and router. And yes it is complicated - I have reams of notes and spreadsheets about how the switch, router and unraid are theoretically going to work together.

 

Makes my head hurt, but kind of fun in a wirdly masochistic way

 

cheers

That all seems to have gone OK thanks.

Only slight quirk is that it's complaining about eth1 being disconnected as if it's expecting a bond or LAG between eth0 and eth1 when I haven't set one up - the other two ports are marked as 'shutdown inactive'

I think it's probably 'remembering' something from my previous half baked attempts as it says, "Interface Ethernet Port 1 is down. Check Cable!" in red on the bottom border of the page to the right of "Array Started" in green.

 

Is there a way to clear this? The obvious restarts etc. haven't changed it.

 

One other quick question at a tangent - if docker containers are running is it OK to just switch docker services off in Docker Settings, or should I be stopping them under the Docker Tab  before stopping the service - or does it make no odds? Just want to know what best practice is.

On 10/7/2023 at 1:30 PM, awediohead said:

Only slight quirk is that it's complaining about eth1 being disconnected as if it's expecting a bond or LAG between eth0 and eth1 when I haven't set one up - the other two ports are marked as 'shutdown inactive'

I think it's probably 'remembering' something from my previous half baked attempts as it says, "Interface Ethernet Port 1 is down. Check Cable!" in red on the bottom border of the page to the right of "Array Started" in green.

 

Is there a way to clear this? The obvious restarts etc. haven't changed it.

 

Go to Settings -> Network Settings -> eth1 and set the "address assignment" option(s) to none, then press the Port Down button. That should do the trick.

 

On 10/7/2023 at 1:30 PM, awediohead said:

One other quick question at a tangent - if docker containers are running is it OK to just switch docker services off in Docker Settings, or should I be stopping them under the Docker Tab  before stopping the service - or does it make no odds? Just want to know what best practice is.

 

Stopping the Docker service will stop the containers gracefully, it is fine to do that.