Hi there,

My Dell PE 1950 Server have 2 NICs and two is currently connected.
All have bnx2 dirvers. While checking with ifconfig -a, shows eth2 with following out put

eth2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:10:18:39:3B:E6
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)
Interrupt:169 Memory:d0000000-d0012100


However, if I set an IPADDRESS and related parameters in the ifcfg-eth2 and do "ifup eth2"; the system returns

[root@web1 network-scripts]# ifup eth2
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Device or resource busy
Failed to bring up eth2.

(dmesg shows the following output)

[root@web1 network-scripts]# dmesg | grep eth2
eth2: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (B2) PCI-X 64-bit 133MHz found at mem d0000000, IRQ 169, node addr 001018393be6
bnx2: eth2: using MSI
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready

How can I debug this issue?. Any pointers are appreciated.

TIA
Jose

It's telling you link is not ready meaning you don't have a cable plugged into it or the cable is not connected to anything live (e.g. a switch).

You can run ethtool eth2 to get more information on it.

I'm a bit confused though. You say you only have two interfaces - those would typically be eth0 and eth1. Where is eth2 coming from?

If you have a live connection on one interface then moving the cable to the other interface should help you verify whether the cable is the issue or the interface itself.