Features/ConsistentNetworkDeviceNaming

Consistent Network Device Naming

Summary

On systems with multiple network ports, allow use of BIOS-provided port names instead of ethX.

Owner

• Name: Matt Domsch

• Email: Matt_Domsch@dell.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 15
• Last updated: 2010-10-26
• Percentage of completion: 00%

Detailed Description

Systems, particularly servers, with multiple network ports, name the ports ethX in a non-deterministic order, and are therefore not useful for system administrators.

The proposal is as follows:

• revive biosdevname from a dead.package
• provide a kickstart option to use biosdevname in udev rules
• have kickstart / anaconda use the biosdevname-provided names
• ensure postinstall udev uses biosdevname in udev rules

Benefit to Fedora

System Administrators can then use BIOS-provided names, which are consistent and not arbitrarily named, for their network ports. This eliminates the confusion that non-deterministic naming brings, and eliminates the use of hard-coded MAC address based port renaming which a) is racy and error-prone, and b) introduces state into an otherwise stateless system.

Scope

see above

How To Test

TBD

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/YourFeatureName