When Baremetal Edge is rebooted, some interface names are changed to renameXX.

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

When the "get interface" command is executed, some interface names are changed to "renameXX."

> get interface

  bond0    Network interface
  docker0  Network interface
  eth0     Network interface
  eth1     Network interface
  eth10    Network interface
  eth11    Network interface
  eth2     Network interface
  eth3     Network interface
  eth4     Network interface
  eth5     Network interface
  eth6     Network interface
  eth7     Network interface
  eth8     Network interface
  eth9     Network interface
  lo       Network interface
  renameXX Network interface <---!
  renameXX Network interface <---!

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.0
VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.1
VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2
VMware NSX 4.0
VMware NSX 4.1

Cause

The udev rules files will get regenerated from scratch on every reboot which may lead to some instability of interface naming. The kernel will initially give the interface a name based on PCI bus discovery timing, and the order of interface discovery could potentially change between reboots.
The "renameXX" naming is a side effect of systemd-udev renaming the interfaces to align with the udev rules file. The version of systemd used in a NSX-T release uses an intermediate name while renaming to avoid a clash with another interface already having the same destination name.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2.4
This issue is resolved in VMware NSX 4.1.2

Workaround

Reboot the NSX Edge.

Note:
To prevent recurrence, there is a systemd service that does the udev rules regeneration called 'nsx-edge-net-rules.service', which can be disabled and masked to prevent it from running.

systemctl disable nsx-edge-net-rules.service
systemctl mask nsx-edge-net-rules.service

When adding or removing physical NICs, it is necessary to enable the 'nsx-edge-net-rules.service'. After completing the work, please disable the 'nsx-edge-net-rules.service' again.

systemctl enable nsx-edge-net-rules.service
systemctl unmask nsx-edge-net-rules.service