Replace a NIC with the same vendor and device-id

The following procedure allows the replacement of a NIC on a host, without requiring a host or system (in case of AIO-SX) re-install and re-configuration, in the case of the replaced NIC having the same vendor or device ID information.

The normal approach to doing such a change would be to do a system host-delete, a system host-add (re-install) and a re-configure of the host. In the case of an AIO-SX deployment, with only one host, this would result in a full system re-install and full system re-configuration.

Since this procedure reuses same vendor and device ID information and capabilities, the interface’s new MAC will be updated internally and no reconfiguration is required. Assuming that the replacement will occur on the same PCI slot of the previous card, the procedure can be executed for all types of NIC classes (pci-sriov, data, pci-passthrough, and platform).

Procedure

  1. Lock the host.

    ~(keystone_admin)]$ system host-lock <hostname>

    1. Wait for the host to be reported as locked.

  2. Power down the host manually and make the NIC card replacement.

  3. Power up the host.

  4. Unlock the host.

    ~(keystone_admin)]$ system host-unlock <hostname>

Results

The host is rebooted, and its Availability State is reported as In-Test. After a few minutes, it is reported as Unlocked, Enabled, and Available.