2.3. RHEA-2011:0644 — new package: biosdevname

A new biosdevname package is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Traditionally, network interfaces in Linux are named eth[X]. However, in many cases, these names do not correspond to actual labels on the chassis. Modern server platforms with multiple network adapters can encounter non-deterministic and counter-intuitive naming of these network interfaces.

This update for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 introduces biosdevname, an optional convention for naming network interfaces. biosdevname assigns names to network interfaces based on their physical location.

Note that biosdevname is disabled by default, except for a limited set of Dell PowerEdge, C Series and Precision Workstation systems.

Further information on the new biosdevname feature is available in this Knowledgebase article.