Switch from onboard NIC to newly installed Intel NIC

[Dr_Cox1911]

Hi all,

 

due to dropped network connections with my Realtek Onboard NIC I decided to install a Intel NIC in my Unraid Server.

I'm running Unraid 6.7.2.

 

How can I switch Unraid from using the eth0 (onboard Realtek NIC) to eth2 (I have a second onboard Realtek NIC eth1)?

The IP-adress should stay the same (192.168.178.30).

 

I tried to boot up the server with the network cable attached to eth0 and then setting the IP for eth2 to "192.168.178.31". I then plugged the network cable in the eht2 NIC and tried to access the webconfig via 192.168.178.31, but's it's not responding.

[Hoopster]

11 minutes ago, Dr_Cox1911 said:

Hi all,

 

due to dropped network connections with my Realtek Onboard NIC I decided to install a Intel NIC in my Unraid Server.

I'm running Unraid 6.7.2.

 

How can I switch Unraid from using the eth0 (onboard Realtek NIC) to eth2 (I have a second onboard Realtek NIC eth1)?

The IP-adress should stay the same (192.168.178.30).

 

I tried to boot up the server with the network cable attached to eth0 and then setting the IP for eth2 to "192.168.178.31". I then plugged the network cable in the eht2 NIC and tried to access the webconfig via 192.168.178.31, but's it's not responding.

Do you need to use the Realtek NICs for anything (other than unRAID)?  If not, you could just disable the Realtek NICs in the BIOS/UEFI and the Intel NIC would be the only one found.

[Dr_Cox1911]

I don't want to use the Realtek NICs anymore, but by disabling them in the BIOS won't I lock myself out of the webinterface entirely? And is there another way, because I would have to drag a screen and a keyboard to the server to change this in the BIOS.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Dr_Cox1911

[Hoopster]

I don't want to use the Realtek NICs anymore, but by disabling them in the BIOS won't I lock myself out of the webinterface entirely? And is there another way, because I would have to drag a screen and a keyboard to the server to change this in the BIOS.

Set your network in unRAID to DHCP instead of static before rebooting to disable NICs. Then you can set it back to static after reboot.

 

Personally, if I did not want a particular NIC used and wanted to make sure nothing grabbed it, I would disable it.

 

You can map which NIC is eth0, eth1, etc, by MAC address in the Settings --> Network Settings Interface Rules area of the GUI

 

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Hoopster

[Dr_Cox1911]

I disabled both my onboard NICs in UEFI and upon booting into unRaid it states that eth0 can not be found on the console.

I'm able to access the webinterface with the eth2 (Intel NIC) though, but in the network settings there is still the eth0 listed.

 

Should I worry about the eth0 not found message during bootup?

[Hoopster]

4 hours ago, Dr_Cox1911 said:

Should I worry about the eth0 not found message during bootup?

unRAID probably still expects to find eth0 as the first interface.  Obviously, you can can access the GUI/server via the IP address assigned to eth2, but, if you want it to be eth0 (and get rid of the message), you can assign the MAC address of the Intel card to eth0 in the Interface Rules area and configure the eth0 interface. What shows up there now?

 

Do you still have an eth0 configured in Network Settings?  To change Interface Settings, the array must be stopped.

 

[Dr_Cox1911]

Just tried to change the eth2 to eth0, but even after stopping the array I don't have a section called Interface Rules in Network Settings.

Fix Common Problems is now stating, that my DNS settings are borked (this happened since I disabled the onboard NICs).

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, Dr_Cox1911 said:

Just tried to change the eth2 to eth0, but even after stopping the array I don't have a section called Interface Rules in Network Settings.

Fix Common Problems is now stating, that my DNS settings are borked (this happened since I disabled the onboard NICs).

 

What does your 'network.cfg' file look like in the config folder of the unRAID flash drive?  It's just a text file and you can manually edit it if you know what to change.  Your DNS config for unRAID is in that file.

 

I also have a 'network-rules.cfg' file (stores the ethX interface info) which you probably don't have if that section is not appearing in Network Settings.

 

Also, if you want to start over on the unRAID networking, you can delete the 'network.cfg' file (make a backup or rename it first just in case) and unRAID will create it with defaults on the next reboot.  Of course the default is DHCP so you get an IP address for unRAID.

 

[Dr_Cox1911]

Thanks for your help!

 

I shutdown my server, plugged in the USB-stick into my PC and made a backup. After that I deleted the network.cfg. I now have only eth0 listed and everything is working fine.

 

So my case here is closed.