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    Interface addition - is this a bug?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    17 Posts 6 Posters 1.3k Views
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    • V
      viragomann @Pentangle
      last edited by

      @Pentangle said in Interface addition - is this a bug?:

      I've now got a fifth NIC installed in the ESXi servers

      Is it of the same type as the others?

      P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • P
        Pentangle @viragomann
        last edited by

        @viragomann Yes, VMXNET3, like the others are. I've since noticed that actually ALL my interface assignments aside from the LAN were screwed and needed re-setting.

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        • V
          viragomann
          last edited by

          pfSense generally adds the devices in the order of the hardware bus and device numbers, which is given by the host:

          ce212287-605f-4ff0-a39f-17d44699ca64-grafik.png

          So maybe ESXi gives the new device a number less than an already existing.
          Possibly there is a way to change it in ESXi.

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          • P
            Pentangle @viragomann
            last edited by

            @viragomann in which case then wouldn't it be more desirable to add the existing devices based on MAC address and then add new devices afterwards in whatever order they see fit? i.e. i'd view it as a bug that adding a new NIC breaks old NIC assignments. Wouldn't you?

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            • V
              viragomann @Pentangle
              last edited by

              @Pentangle said in Interface addition - is this a bug?:

              in which case then wouldn't it be more desirable to add the existing devices based on MAC address

              The MAC address of a NIC is primarily a property which connected devices can see and take account of if necessary. E.g. for MAC filtering.

              @Pentangle said in Interface addition - is this a bug?:

              i'd view it as a bug that adding a new NIC breaks old NIC assignments.

              Possilby in ESXi.

              In KVM I can manually set the hardware bus numbers if needed, but I don't know how to do in ESXi.

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              • H
                heper
                last edited by

                @viragomann said in Interface addition - is this a bug?:

                be ESXi gives the new device a number less than an already existing.
                Possibly there is a way to change it in ESXi.

                https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=198406

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                • V
                  viragomann @heper
                  last edited by

                  @heper
                  That concerns to VLAN and FreeBSD 10.1. The TO didn't mention the use of VLANs.

                  Besides, that bug should be fixed long ago I think, isn't it?

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                  • P
                    Pentangle @viragomann
                    last edited by

                    @viragomann I don't know either!

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                    • H
                      heper
                      last edited by heper

                      it's not a bsd bug, it's an esxi thing ... it appears to still be relevant. the bug is indeed related to vlans, but the issue of the reordering is addressed aswell

                      esxi has been reordering interfaces after >4 Vnics of the same type, for as long as i can remember. that's one of the reasons i prefer to let the VM handle the vlans and not the host.

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                      • P
                        Pentangle @viragomann
                        last edited by

                        @viragomann I've actually got VLANs configured on one of the NICs from a previous network arrangement but i'm not using them.

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                        • jimpJ
                          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                          last edited by

                          It's just how ESXI probes NICs.

                          <4 is: 1,2,3,4
                          If you have 8, it becomes: 1,5,2,6,3,7,4,8

                          Check the MACs, reassign the networks and/or interfaces to match what you want in pfSense.

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                          • P
                            Pentangle @jimp
                            last edited by

                            @jimp Can't you do something cleverer then? It was just blind luck that my LAN assignment was NIC1 otherwise i'd have lost access.

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                            • jimpJ
                              jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                              last edited by

                              Not without a ton of work to try to make NICs persist or be matched by their original hardware address. Gets tricky fast. There is a feature request out there for that, but in practice it's a rare need.

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                              • bingo600B
                                bingo600 @jimp
                                last edited by

                                @jimp said in Interface addition - is this a bug?:

                                Not without a ton of work to try to make NICs persist or be matched by their original hardware address. Gets tricky fast. There is a feature request out there for that, but in practice it's a rare need.

                                On a regular (non VM) pfSense maching i'd hate Mac-mapped nics.
                                Would make "cloning" a config to a new machine "ugly"

                                /Bingo

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                                • P
                                  Pentangle @bingo600
                                  last edited by

                                  @bingo600 I'm not advocating that as the only method, just a small table lookup for existing MAC addresses with a failover to the current way of working if not in the table. A clone would therefore work as before since none of the MAC addresses would exist.

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