Installing an ethernet card w/o rebooting?
 

So my server's setting a record uptime every day and the entire company depends upon it for like a million things, and life is good. Walking, talking Linux success story.

Now I need to install another network card so I can connect it to our DMZ link on our firewall, but I don't have pci hotplugging compiled into the kernel.

I've tried running kudzu (we're running Fedora), and all it did was ask me if I still wanted my keyboard configuration because the box has nothing plugged into it anymore.

Do I have any options?
Thanks guys.

First off, even with pci hotplug support, I'm not sure it would be possible. Only a very limited number of PCI controllers support it as they need to be able to switch off the slot for you to insert the card.

Options? You could use a USB network adapter. :) Not very clean, but it's about all I can think of.

Hey, thanks a lot for the reply. I guess I'll just have to put in some OT and do it when the place gets quiet.

I can't imagine it being more than 10 minutes of downtime. Should be relatively easy, as far as maintenance goes. Might be a good time to blow out the inside of the case with compressed air, depending on your environment (even the cleanest server rooms aren't sterile environments).