Multiple network interfaces on RH 5.6

Question

I have a Redhat 5.6 server with multiple network interfaces plugged into different network switch ports, mostly each on a different vlan/subnet. How do I know which interface is on which subnet?

As an example, eth0 is the primary interface and works fine. I plumbed up another IP from a different vlan on eth1, but I can't ping the gateway (and it is unpingable). I am told eth1 is plugged into a port on a different vlan (It is actually a heartbeat vlan for clustering). How do I test which controller is on a particular vlan?

eth1 (IP's changed):

[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# ifup eth1
Error: an inet prefix is expected rather than "GATEWAY<N>=10.56.35.1".
Error: an inet prefix is expected rather than "NETMASK<N>=255.255.255.0".
Error: an inet prefix is expected rather than "ADDRESS<N>=10.56.36.122".
Error: an inet prefix is expected rather than "GATEWAY<N>=10.56.35.1".
Error: an inet prefix is expected rather than "NETMASK<N>=255.255.255.0".
Error: an inet prefix is expected rather than "ADDRESS<N>=10.56.38.35".

[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
10.56.36.0       0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1
10.56.7.0        0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     0      0        0 eth1
0.0.0.0         10.56.7.1        0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0

[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# ping 10.56.7.1
PING 10.56.7.1 (10.56.7.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.56.7.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.450 ms
^C
--- 10.56.7.1 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.450/0.480/0.510/0.030 ms

[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# ping 10.56.36.1
PING 10.56.36.1 (10.56.36.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 10.56.36.122 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable

[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# ifconfig eth1
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr B8:E3:B6:AB:1C:6D
          inet addr:10.56.36.122  Bcast:10.56.36.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:65 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:8435 (8.2 KiB)
          Interrupt:77

Adding some more information:

[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
HOSTNAME=tsgxd3900
GATEWAY=10.56.7.1
[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
# NetXen Incorporated NX3031 Multifunction 1/10-Gigabit Server Adapter
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
DHCPCLASS=
HWADDR=78:E3:B5:0B:7C:6C
IPADDR=10.56.7.243
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=yes
[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
# NetXen Incorporated NX3031 Multifunction 1/10-Gigabit Server Adapter
DEVICE=eth1
HWADDR=78:E3:B5:0B:7C:6D
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=10.56.36.122
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
HOTPLUG=no
[root@tsgxd3900 ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth1
GATEWAY<N>=10.56.35.1
NETMASK<N>=255.255.255.0
ADDRESS<N>=10.56.36.122

GATEWAY<N>=10.56.35.1
NETMASK<N>=255.255.255.0
ADDRESS<N>=10.56.38.35
[root@tsgxd3900 ~]#

Solution

It looks like you have two default gateways defined. Can you post the output of the following files:

/etc/sysconfig/network
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 

You probably don't need a gateway statement in your eth1 interface. You should define any needed routes for the secondary interface that in an /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth1 file, using the format:

10.56.36.0/24 via 10.56.36.1 dev eth1

Comments

[ewwhite]

See my comment below about the format of the route-eth1 file. What you have there now should be changed.

[Charlie B]

What does that tell me? I can see the output of these commands, but I am not sure how to tell what subnet the ports are actually configured to? I also posted some updates to my question with the config file contents.

[Rilindo]

Okay, are you referring to the server or switch? If the server, then you can tell by IP and net mask, which in this case, it means that interface is configured with a /24 subnet. If you are talking about the switch, you'll have to ask you network administrator for more details about the port configuration. They can tell you that as well as what subnets configuration you should be using.