distinguish two identical network cards

distinguish two identical network cards

[andreas.hartmann]

Hello!

I've got a little problem with XSeries machines, containing two identical
builtin Broadcom NIC's. Is there any chance to get some information, which one
of the two cards is the upper, and which one is the lower card?
I need this information, because I want to install a lot of these machines
automatically.


Thank you for every hint,
kind regards,
Andreas Hartmann

Re: distinguish two identical network cards

[Krishnakumar. R]

Hi,

If its physically identifying the cards that you want,  
then you can  use 'ethtool' for it.  ' -p ' option of 
ethtool will help you physically identify the cards.

Hope it helps,
Regards,
KK.



> Hello!
>
> I've got a little problem with XSeries machines, containing two identical
> builtin Broadcom NIC's. Is there any chance to get some information, which
> one of the two cards is the upper, and which one is the lower card?
> I need this information, because I want to install a lot of these machines
> automatically.
>
>
> Thank you for every hint,
> kind regards,
> Andreas Hartmann
>
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

-- 
HomePage: http://puggy.symonds.net/~krishnakumar

Re: distinguish two identical network cards

[Toon van der Pas]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 02:37:17PM +0530, Krishnakumar. R wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> If its physically identifying the cards that you want,  
> then you can  use 'ethtool' for it.  ' -p ' option of 
> ethtool will help you physically identify the cards.

Also, look into the 'nameif' utility.
It enables you to assign interface names to MAC addresses.
Great tool!

Regards,
Toon.
-- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan

Re: distinguish two identical network cards

[Micha Feigin]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 09:49:35AM +0100, andreas.hartmann@fiducia.de wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I've got a little problem with XSeries machines, containing two identical
> builtin Broadcom NIC's. Is there any chance to get some information, which one
> of the two cards is the upper, and which one is the lower card?
> I need this information, because I want to install a lot of these machines
> automatically.
> 

Two things I can think about.

First thing is that you can look at the link lights on the card and try
doing a ping and see which one blinks.

Second, if the machines are the same they should scan the bus in the
same direction and IIRC linux numbers the cards in the order of
detection, especially if they are the same (use the same driver) and
thus it should be consistent with the numbering order of the cards
(they will always get the same number on consecutive boots).

> 
> Thank you for every hint,
> kind regards,
> Andreas Hartmann
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Re: distinguish two identical network cards

[Karl Tatgenhorst]

   If you pay attention to what slot you are putting them in you could 
script the install using lspci to get the cards right. ie...slots 3 & 4 
are nics so eth0 = `lspci | grep for slot 3`  of  course grep for slot 3 
may need replaced, use the man pages and play around.

Karl

andreas.hartmann@fiducia.de wrote:

>Hello!
>
>I've got a little problem with XSeries machines, containing two identical
>builtin Broadcom NIC's. Is there any chance to get some information, which one
>of the two cards is the upper, and which one is the lower card?
>I need this information, because I want to install a lot of these machines
>automatically.
>
>
>Thank you for every hint,
>kind regards,
>Andreas Hartmann
>
>
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
>  
>

distinguish two identical network cards

[andreas.hartmann]

Hello!

Some clarification:
It is important, that the cards can be distinguished without any user driven
action - it must run automatically. The machines will be delivered to somebody
who doesn't know anything about linux / unix. I must be able to do a
configuration like that:

Physical upper card: eth0
Physical lower card: eth1

The customer will be told, e.g.: plug in the network cable from switch a to the
upper card, the cable to the switch b must be connected to the lower card.



Thank you for every hint,
kind regards,
Andreas Hartmann

Re: distinguish two identical network cards

[Bill Davidsen]

andreas.hartmann@fiducia.de wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> Some clarification:
> It is important, that the cards can be distinguished without any user driven
> action - it must run automatically. The machines will be delivered to somebody
> who doesn't know anything about linux / unix. I must be able to do a
> configuration like that:
> 
> Physical upper card: eth0
> Physical lower card: eth1
> 
> The customer will be told, e.g.: plug in the network cable from switch a to the
> upper card, the cable to the switch b must be connected to the lower card.

Sorry, other than the already suggested use of nameif I don't see any 
other good way to do it. At some point the hardware should pass through 
the hands of someone who DOES know Linux enough to read the MAC address 
off the sticker usually found on the NIC, and set the config to match.

You better label the back of the NICs, if your customer can't identify 
the one with the blinking light (as previously suggested) they may have 
problems with UNIX terms like upper and lower ;-)

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
   CTO TMR Associates, Inc
   Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979