Currently running 6.4.0_rc17b.

Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSZ-TLN4F-O

 

I have searched the forums quite extensively and cannot find any info regarding my issue.

 

My motherboard has 4 nics.  2 x 1 gb and 2 x 10 gb.

 

I have one of the 10gb nics assigned to eth0.

 

Even though I press the Port Down button on the nics that have no cables attached to,  they come back up each time I reboot the server.

 

Is there a way to make the Port Up and Port Down changes persistent (by editing a file or other means) ? 

 

Note: I have no way to disable these ports in the BIOS.

 

Thanks.

You need to edit the file network.cfg in the folder /config on your flash device.

In this file your first interface is referenced by index [0], e.g. IFNAME[0]. Delete the other indices [1], [2]... and change the number of SYSNICS to "1". This would leave only the first interface (your 10G eth0) configured. Now when your start your system all "unused" interfaces stay down.

 

3 minutes ago, bonienl said:

Now when your start your system all "unused" interfaces stay down

 

Why does it matter whether unused ports are 'up' or 'down'?

6 minutes ago, bonienl said:

You need to edit the file network.cfg in the folder /config on your flash device.

In this file your first interface is referenced by index [0], e.g. IFNAME[0]. Delete the other indices [1], [2]... and change the number of SYSNICS to "1". This would leave only the first interface (your 10G eth0) configured. Now when your start your system all "unused" interfaces stay down.

 

 

Thanks, I will give this a try.

2 minutes ago, limetech said:

 

Why does it matter whether unused ports are 'up' or 'down'?

 

Well...unless I'm doing something wrong, every time I reboot, I have a message at the bottom of the screen for all unused nics like this:

 

Interface eth1 is down. Check cable!

28 minutes ago, limetech said:

 

Why does it matter whether unused ports are 'up' or 'down'?

 

It doesn't matter operational wise. It just prevents the "check cable" message when the network page is opened.

 

32 minutes ago, bonienl said:

You need to edit the file network.cfg in the folder /config on your flash device.

In this file your first interface is referenced by index [0], e.g. IFNAME[0]. Delete the other indices [1], [2]... and change the number of SYSNICS to "1". This would leave only the first interface (your 10G eth0) configured. Now when your start your system all "unused" interfaces stay down.

 

 

Hi Bonienl,

 

Results are in:

 

Boot up time significantly increased.  Usually a long wait at /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -i /var/run/rsyslogd.pid in the console.

All unused ports now have Port Up set as default and no more Interface ethx is down. Check cable! errors.

 

Question: Is it possible from a programming standpoint to have entries removed from the network.cfg file when the Port Down button is pressed ?

 

Thank you.

Sounds like you still had some configuration on the unused ports, there shouldn't be a difference when unused ports are set to "None" as IP address assignment.

Edited December 22, 20178 yr by bonienl

Hi Bonienl,

 

Maybe you could tell me what changes I would have to make.

 

Here is a sample from my old network.cfg file:

 

IFNAME[1]="eth1"
DESCRIPTION[1]="Physical Lan 2 - 1 gbe"
PROTOCOL[1]="ipv4"
USE_DHCP[1]="yes"
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]="0.0.0.0"
GATEWAY[1]=""
METRIC[1]="217"
USE_DHCP6[1]=""
IPADDR6[1]=""
NETMASK6[1]=""
GATEWAY6[1]=""
PRIVACY6[1]=""
MTU[1]=""

USE_DHCP[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
METRIC[1]=""

 

2 hours ago, bonienl said:

USE_DHCP[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
METRIC[1]=""

 

Thanks bonienl,

 

In the future I will see if I can blank out the settings in the webgui instead of editing the file directly.