Bring the Interface Online Manually

1. Assign both an IP address and a netmask to bring the interface online.

   host #> ifconfig eth2 10.1.10.156 netmask 255.255.255.0

   The system switches the device online automatically when it has the required information.

2. Verify that the device is online by using the ifconfig command.

   host #> ifconfig eth2
   eth2  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:4F:29:00:1D         
   inet addr:10.1.10.156  Bcast:10.1.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
   inet6 addr: fe80::214:4fff:fe29:1/64 Scope:Link
   UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
   RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
   TX packets:27 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
   collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
   RX bytes:300 (300.0 b)  TX bytes:7854 (7.6 KiB)
   Memory:fb000000-fc000000

   This example shows configuring the newly-installed NEM interface eth2 to be IP address 10.1.10.156, which is declared in what used to be known as a Class C (8-bit/255-node) LAN.

   Note that the inet addr shows the following:

   • TCP IPv4 address 10.1.10.156 as specified in the ifconfig command

   • IPv6 address has been automatically derived (in this example, Linux is configured to support IPv6 network communications)

   • Reported state now shows up

3. Verify that RX and TX packet counters are increasing, showing active traffic being routed through the newly configured NEM eth2 network interface.

   See the ifconfig(8) man page for more details and other options on using the ifconfig command to configure Ethernet interfaces.

4. Use the route(8) command to show the current networks.

   host #> route
   Kernel IP routing table  
   Destination     Gateway      Genmask Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
   10.1.10.0      *            255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth2
   10.8.154.0     *            255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1
   default        ban25rtr0d0  0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth1
    

   ---

   Note - In this example, 10.1.10 LAN traffic is being routed through the newly-configured NEM eth2 network interface.

   ---

5. If you want to temporarily switch the network device back to an offline or quiescent state, use the ifconfig down command.

   host #> ifconfig eth2 down
   host #> ifconfig eth2              
   inet addr:10.1.10.156  Bcast:10.1.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
   eth2  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:4F:29:00:1D         
   BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
   RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
   TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
   collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
   RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
   Memory:fb000000-fc000000
    
   host #> route 
   Kernel IP routing table
   Destination  Gateway     Genmask      Flags  Metric Ref  Use Iface
   10.8.154.0   *            255.255.255.0   U     0      0     0 eth1
   default      ban25rtr0d0  0.0.0.0         UG    0      0     0 eth1

   Note the 10.1.10 local area network via eth2 is no longer available, but that the eth2 network interface itself is still present (packet counters zero).

Related Information

• Configure the Network Interface File Automatically for Red Hat Linux

• Configure the Network Interface Automatically for SUSE Linux

• Download and Install the Drivers

• Installing Drivers on Oracle Solaris OS SPARC or x86 Platform

• Installing Drivers on a Windows Platform

• Installing Drivers on a VMware ESX Server Platform