Rename Networks on XO Hosts
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@olivierlambert I believe he means be able to rename / map a hosts physical interfaces to different namings. For instance on host 1, "network 0 / eth0" would be mapped to the physical eth0 interface, but on another host in the pool with a different NIC configuration, he could map the same pool "network 0 / eth0" to the server's physical eth1.
@S-Pam this certainly isn't currently supported, I believe it would take a lot of rewriting the network backend to make it possible.
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@fohdeesha Yes, you are right. That's what precisely what I meant.
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@s-pam said in Rename Networks on XO Hosts:
@olivierlambert said in Rename Networks on XO Hosts:
If you use a pool, it's for sharing a network and/or a storage.
If you don't want to share a network across PIFs between hosts, then don't use a pool
I get it. Though I would prefer not having to buy another server when I can run a VM. And in fact it works fine, just naming networks is a little odd at the moment.
What I would like to see is that networks can be connected to different physical nics on different hosts.
I.e. something like this:
Network Management:
Host 1: eth0
Host 2: eth1
Host 3: eth0
Host 4: eth4Network Someother:
Host 1: eth1
Host 2: n/a
Host 3: eth1
Host 4: eth1Network Another:
Host 1: eth2
Host 2: eth2
Host 3: eth2
Host 4: eth2Then in the VM you can assign the "Network" as normal. If the VM is migrated to another host, then XCP-ng would choose the correct PIF/NIC. This can be an advantage where one or several hosts have extra NICs, maybe with higher speeds. But during migration (rolling upgrades, service, or whatnot), the VMs still work but with reduced performance when moved to another host.
Another example would be if we have a spare host off-site/another building where the network layout cannot be fully replicated as in the datacenter.
Did you ever find a solution to this? I'm literally trying to do the same thing because I have hosts with uneven numbers of NICs...
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@joeydee518 no.
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@s-pam Yikes, thanks for the reply!
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Any idea @fohdeesha ?
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@olivierlambert like I said in my previous reply I believe this would take quite a bit of rewriting in XAPI to accommodate pools with mismatched hardware. The interface rename tool might work in the meantime? https://xcp-ng.org/docs/networking.html#renaming-nics
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I came across this and the solution I upvoted i.e. renaming in pool view, works for me. However, I would like to +1 the idea @Forza put in his post. Cause organizing it all can get quite confusing. XOA being the excellent tool that it is, has this lacking.
For those who come across this and feel discouraged? Do please mention your needs to the team here! They are VERY good at putting these kinds of things on the roadmap if there is a need/want for it!
For myself, I use a spreadsheet to keep track of networks, hosts and pools. I do not rely on XOA alone. Which tbh is probably best practice anyway, in case a backup fails or the world blows up.
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I have 2 hosts.
I have enabled the 4 port LOM NIC in the BIOS on my pool master. The interfaces ethN appear correctly but are misnamed in the Name column.Name MAC PCI ethN Phys SMBios Driver Version Firmware eth4 38:ea:a7:12:de:14 0000:04:00.0[0] eth4 em49 Embedded FlexibleLOM 1 Port 1 ixgbe 5.9.4 0x800009e0, 1.3089.0 eth5 38:ea:a7:12:de:15 0000:04:00.1[0] eth5 em50 Embedded FlexibleLOM 1 Port 2 ixgbe 5.9.4 0x800009e0, 1.3089.0 eth6 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9c 0000:02:00.0[0] eth0 em1 Embedded LOM 1 Port 1 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth7 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9d 0000:02:00.1[0] eth1 em2 Embedded LOM 1 Port 2 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth8 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9e 0000:02:00.2[0] eth2 em3 Embedded LOM 1 Port 3 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth9 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9f 0000:02:00.3[0] eth3 em4 Embedded LOM 1 Port 4 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0I would like to change the Name in the first column to match the name in the ethN column as they are in my second host (which had the NIC enabled previously).
Name MAC PCI ethN Phys SMBios Driver Version Firmware eth0 3c:a8:2a:1e:4e:e8 0000:02:00.0[0] eth0 em1 Embedded LOM 1 Port 1 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.33.0 eth1 3c:a8:2a:1e:4e:e9 0000:02:00.1[0] eth1 em2 Embedded LOM 1 Port 2 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.33.0 eth2 3c:a8:2a:1e:4e:ea 0000:02:00.2[0] eth2 em3 Embedded LOM 1 Port 3 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.33.0 eth3 3c:a8:2a:1e:4e:eb 0000:02:00.3[0] eth3 em4 Embedded LOM 1 Port 4 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.33.0 eth4 5c:b9:01:8a:c0:e0 0000:04:00.0[0] eth4 em49 Embedded FlexibleLOM 1 Port 1 ixgbe 5.9.4 0x800009e0, 1.3089.0 eth5 5c:b9:01:8a:c0:e1 0000:04:00.1[0] eth5 em50 Embedded FlexibleLOM 1 Port 2 ixgbe 5.9.4 0x800009e0, 1.3089.0eth4 and eth5 match in both hosts and I don't want to break those because I have existing data and NFS on them.
I just want to rename eth6-9 on the pool master to match eth0-3 on the second host.
I have tried the interface-rename method but I am not getting what I expect. All the examples I have seen are useful for swapping the existing names for another existing name, not for changing the name to one that does not exist in the list already.
Any guidance would be most helpful.
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For example, rename eth6 to eth0...
~# ifconfig eth6 down ~]# xe pif-list host-uuid=7cbc09aa-6d32-44a9-b6a2-eb5b30c11e1e device=eth6 uuid ( RO) : ab7303f0-accd-7458-2a1f-e03906a85418 device ( RO): eth6 currently-attached ( RO): false VLAN ( RO): -1 network-uuid ( RO): 69435d48-6bf5-c76b-9df9-8e276e2b51fc ~]# xe pif-forget uuid=ab7303f0-accd-7458-2a1f-e03906a85418 ~]# interface-rename --update eth0=3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9c INFO [2025-11-07 09:56:27] Performing manual update of rules. Not actually renaming interfaces INFO [2025-11-07 09:56:27] All done ~]# ifconfig eth0 up eth0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such deviceI can remove the NICs but if I rescan then they appear as eth6,7,8,9 again.
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And the secret to this was using the script correctly (--rename instead of --update)
interface-rename --rename eth0=3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9c Name MAC PCI ethN Phys SMBios Driver Version Firmware eth0 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9c 0000:02:00.0[0] eth0 em1 Embedded LOM 1 Port 1 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth1 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9d 0000:02:00.1[0] eth1 em2 Embedded LOM 1 Port 2 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth2 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9e 0000:02:00.2[0] eth2 em3 Embedded LOM 1 Port 3 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth3 3c:a8:2a:15:4a:9f 0000:02:00.3[0] eth3 em4 Embedded LOM 1 Port 4 tg3 3.137 5719-v1.46 NCSI v1.5.12.0 eth4 38:ea:a7:12:de:14 0000:04:00.0[0] eth4 em49 Embedded FlexibleLOM 1 Port 1 ixgbe 5.9.4 0x800009e0, 1.3089.0 eth5 38:ea:a7:12:de:15 0000:04:00.1[0] eth5 em50 Embedded FlexibleLOM 1 Port 2 ixgbe 5.9.4 0x800009e0, 1.3089.0All done.
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@dsiminiuk Great! Glad you got it working!
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@fohdeesha If this was what was the issue for @dsiminiuk , could you check the documentation?
It states:
interface-rename --update eth4=00:24:81:80:19:63 eth8=00:24:81:7f:cf:8bhttps://docs.xcp-ng.org/networking/#renaming-nics
Command help states that --update is correct as well.
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Let me ping @Team-Documentation-Knowledge-Management
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@olivierlambert Thanks.
--rename isn't mentioned in the KB.
If I don't see something in the next week or two, I might be able to test it in a lab and then propose an update via a github fork.
