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Erik_Aldor_3151's avatar
Erik_Aldor_3151
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Feb 22, 2010

Interfaces uninitialized?

I am testing the VE in both Vmware ws 7 and Virtualbox. Unfortunatly with the same result. I can't get the interfaces to work. I have added them as host only but the interfaces show up as "UNINITIALIZED" and without a mac address. I can't see that I get any connectivity at all on the interfaces. The release notes mention UNINITIALIZED but that it should work anyway.
  • VMware Converter lets one specify the number of NICs at deployment time, but there is a default of one NIC using this method. I prefer to add on four dataplane NICs at deployment time.

     

     

    If using the viClient, the OVA will be deployed with a mgmt and two dataplance interfaces.
  • VE trial doesn't support VMXNET3 interfaces - this is why they're coming up with all zero MAC addreses. In VE production (10.2.x), E1000 are not supported but VMXNET3 are - you will see the same behavior.

     

     

    If you get into this situation you're not "permanently hosed" - simply rm /var/db/mcpdb.bin and reboot your way to freedom.

     

     

    As for iControl, nice find - the unitialized NICs are part of the 10.1.0 VE Trial Release Note Known Issues, but that's a tangible aspect of the issue.

     

     

  • Ah, thanks for that tip! What does /var/db/mcpdb.bin do anyhow?

     

     

    I've opened a bug with F5 support regarding the iControl issue. Will post the info here as I get it.

     

     

    Thanks,

     

    -Derek

     

  • F5 support said that the Trial Version runs on different code than the production version of LTM VE, and that the Trial Version has all sorts of bugs. It looks like the UNINITIALIZED interface bug exists in both the trial version and production version though. F5 said that they will address the bug at some point in the future.

     

     

    The release notes for 10.2.1 show that the uninitialized interface issue is a known issue:

     

     

    https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/releasenotes/product/relnotes_ltm_ve_10_2_1.html

     

     

    From the support engineer:

     

     

    "Yes, the 10.2.1 will also show the interfaces as uninitialized, as well. But, they will work. The Dev team will fix the problem in a future release. "
  • I see the same " In VE production (11.2.x), E1000 are not supported but VMXNET3 are "

     

     

     

    But, I actually see MAC addresses (and they randomly swap on each reboot messing with the license key) but do not seem to be able to get a "Int" and "Ext" network only the management port always works by giving me connectivity.

     

     

     

    Note I never had a problem with Big-IP LTM VE (10.1.0) but I need to upgrade to use soem new 11.2.X features.

     

     

     

    I would love to run Big-IP LTM VE (11.2.0) it in VirtualBox is it possible ? Is there any workaround ?

     

     

     

    I also opened a question to the same effect at https://devcentral.f5.com/Community...fault.aspx

     

     

     

  • I've just got 11.2 running in VMWorkstation 7 with "e1000" for mgmt, and "VMXNET3" for 1.1 and 1.2.

     

    They came up uninitialized, but VLAN configuration fixed that.

     

    I have rebooted the VM 4 times, and not had any issues with the MAC addresses moving. Yet. :)

     

    I started with the 11.2 .ova.

     

    Converted it to .vmx with the ovftool.

     

    Imported it into VMWorkstation. (ignored an import error(?) and deleted the 4th interface in this process).

     

     

     

    The interfaces are defined in my .vmx file as below:

     

     

    ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

     

    ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

     

    ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"

     

    ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

     

    ethernet1.present = "TRUE"

     

    ethernet1.addressType = "generated"

     

    ethernet1.connectionType = "custom"

     

    ethernet1.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

     

    ethernet2.present = "TRUE"

     

    ethernet2.addressType = "generated"

     

    ethernet2.connectionType = "custom"

     

    ethernet2.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

     

    ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:50:c8:ec"

     

    ethernet1.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:50:c8:f6"

     

    ethernet2.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:50:c8:00"

     

    ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"

     

    ethernet1.pciSlotNumber = "160"

     

    ethernet2.pciSlotNumber = "192"

     

    ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

     

    ethernet1.generatedAddressOffset = "10"

     

    ethernet2.generatedAddressOffset = "20"

     

    ethernet0.vnet = "VMnet1"

     

    ethernet1.vnet = "VMnet5"

     

    ethernet2.vnet = "VMnet6"

     

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Good luck!

     

     

     

    David Pasch

     

  • Brian_McGehee_1's avatar
    Brian_McGehee_1
    Historic F5 Account

    Editing my .vmx and ensuring all my interfaces had ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

     

    worked for me.