Rename Networks on XO Hosts

olivierlambert

fohdeesha

@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

ben20ben

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.

dsiminiuk

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 v1.5.12.0

I 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, 1.3089.0

eth4 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.

dsiminiuk

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 device

I can remove the NICs but if I rescan then they appear as eth6,7,8,9 again.

dsiminiuk

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, 1.3089.0

All done.

guiltykeyboard

@dsiminiuk Great! Glad you got it working!

guiltykeyboard

@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:8b

https://docs.xcp-ng.org/networking/#renaming-nics

Command help states that --update is correct as well.

olivierlambert

Let me ping @Team-Documentation-Knowledge-Management

guiltykeyboard

@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.