Last week I had a power outage due to the weather and for some reason, my cable router went kaput. I got a replacement router and now all of sudden my server couldn't connect to the network.  I get 'Interface Ethernet Port 0 is down. Check cable' error message.

 

My connection is like this.

 

router -> Google Wifi router -> TP-Link router --> ethernet --> Server (unraid)

 

I switched ethernet cables but the same issue and I tried connecting the cable from different places (directly from cable router and Google Wifi router)

 

I attached diagnostics zip file. Could someone figure out this issue?

tower-diagnostics-20201128-1403.zip

Any chance you've plugged into a management port instead of the ethernet port on the T20 (if it has one)?  Check the BIOS to make sure its enabled

 

Maybe the weather also took out your NIC

There is only one ethernet port on T20.

 

13 hours ago, Squid said:

Maybe the weather also took out your NIC

  That's what I thought regarding NIC. Is there anyway to confirm that NIC is dead for sure? I thought cable company's outside equipment would suppress any weather related spikes. Btw, TP-link unmanaged router is not working. But Google Wifi router is working fine after I did the factory reset.

I started 'System Diagnostics' via Boot manager to figure out any issues with the system.

The Diagnostic file indicates that the T20 NIC has not established a link which means you have a NIC problem or a LAN problem.  (Bad cable, switch or router port)

2 hours ago, stlrox said:

Is there anyway to confirm that NIC is dead for sure?

One indication is improper light activity. With the ethernet cable plugged in and connected to a known working port on the switch / router, are the green and amber light on, or blinking?  When you unplug the cable, do the lights go out? If the answer to either of those questions is no, then there is a good chance the NIC is bad.

 

It's possible that a good NIC will stay dark if the drivers aren't loading properly, but I've never seen a good NIC keep the lights lit when the ethernet cord is unplugged.

8 hours ago, jonathanm said:

When you unplug the cable, do the lights go out? If the answer to either of those questions is no, then there is a good chance the NIC is bad.

Nope. I notice lights blink only once when I plug in and that's it. When I ran Dell diagnostics, there were no issues and all tests passed. This NIC is integrated to the motherboard. Looks like I have to get a new network card. How do I find out which network card is compatible with Dell T30?

 

12 hours ago, stlrox said:

How do I find out which network card is compatible with Dell T30?

You will have to look at the MB and/or read the manuals for the T30 to see what type of MB slot is available.  With that information, I would look for a Intel NIC Card as they are probably the most trouble free and widely support (OS wise) cards available.  (The last time that I purchase one, it was about $30US for a single port card.)  When you install it, be sure that you turn-off the onboard NIC in the BIOS.

6 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

You will have to look at the MB and/or read the manuals for the T30 to see what type of MB slot is available.  

It has four slots.
 

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-t30/pet30_om/expansion-card-installation-guidelines?guid=guid-8ad95c18-83ce-4e26-90d7-34a3637ed22f&lang=en-us

How about this one?

https://www.newegg.com/intel-expi9301ctblk/p/N82E16833106033?Item=9SIA4RE8NV1471

Should work.

 

EDIT: make sure that you disable the onboard NIC.   Otherwise, there is a good possibility that Unraid will assign that NIC rather then your new Intel NIC as eth0.  (This is fixable but the method escapes me at the moment.)  Plus as it is a dead piece of hardware you really to want it to be invisible to any OS as it boots up.

Edited December 6, 20205 yr by Frank1940

I got a new NIC and disabled onboard NIC. Everything worked great except for couple of docker containers (Pi-Hole and cops). I had to fix the network type (br0) for these containers to make them work.