Network is not up after execution of the network init script

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1

Situation

When using static IP addresses, init scripts which are executed right after S05network, fail, because the network is not up at that time yet. As an example the open-iscsi init script (S06open-iscsi) will not work because it is scheduled after the network init script (S05network). This leads to iscsi connections not coming up after boot.

This issue has not been observed when using DHCP addresses. This is not a driver issue, but a general network issue.

Resolution

The root cause is the usage of static IP vs DHCP. When using static IP, the router/switch might take some time to discover the route to the requested target, so the interface might claim to be up whereas the route is not yet usable. During this time any network connection will fail with -EHOSTUNREACH.
There is no general solution as the card is fully set up at this time. Just the switches need to establish the routes to the destinations.

Regarding open-iscsi issues discussed above, an update of the rpm package is available.

Disclaimer

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