Environment
Novell Linux Desktop 9
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)
Novell SUSE Linux
Situation
When swapping network cards in SUSE Linux, old ethX identifiers
will not be used for the new card. For example, if a machine has a
single NIC identified as eth0 and that NIC is swapped out the
new NIC will use eth1, not eth0.
Resolution
This behavior is governed by the persistent device identifier
set in /etc/udev/rules.d/30-net_persistent_names.rules. Contained
in this file is a line for each NIC, such as:
SUBSYSTEM=="net",
ACTION=="add", SYSFS{address}=="00:15:60:ed:b7:5b",
IMPORT="/lib/udev/rename_netiface %k eth0"
This line maps a MAC address to an identifier. To cause a new
NIC to use an old identifier, remove the old line and restart the
server. After configuring the new NIC, it will use the old
identifier.