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We've got an aging Dell T300 server used as a utility box. It's been dependable despite being neglected--it was recently found to still be running Ubuntu Server 13.10, with an uptime approaching 1 year. So do-release-upgrade was ran on it and was mostly successful.

The box had it's eth0 and eth1 onboard NICs bonded into an LACP interface. After the do-release-upgrade it appears that eth1 has dissappeared. The device no longer registers during boot, and does not appear during in lshw, lspci, or dmesg--but it's twin eth0 is still present.

I've jumpered the NV_RAM CLR jumper and have checked that both NICs are enabled in BIOS, but otherwise can find no sign of the 2nd NIC registering.

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  • Have you considered the possibility that the NIC simply died?
    – Michael Hampton
    Nov 9, 2014 at 1:40
  • Yep, but there's complete lack of any error from either the hardware monitors (the LED notification panel, the DRAC admin chip, and the OS log). The link light is still on, although the switch is registering it at 100Mbps. If it's a hardware failure would there be a way to confirm?
    – STW
    Nov 9, 2014 at 1:51

1 Answer 1

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If you see the NIC in the BIOS, your issue is possibly with the OS. In addition, the timing following an OS upgrade is suspect.

  • Try booting a Live CD of some sort to see what devices are registered and exclude your OS install as a cause.
  • Have you looked at the NICs and their link lights?
  • Upgrade firmware. "Neglected server" implies lack of relevant updates.
  • Ask Ubuntu.
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  • 1
    Thanks for the input, it appears the likely issue is firmware. Link lights are working, but various OSes aren't seeing the device. After pulling the CMOS and running with NV_RAM clear enabled I got Dell's support LiveDVD to determine that one NIC is running a far older firmware than the other.
    – STW
    Nov 9, 2014 at 18:25
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    The firmware update fixed it. In case anyone else stumbles into this the Dell Live DVD failed to update the firmware; I had to boot from a regular Centos 6.5 LiveCD and download and install the firmware. As a result both NICs are back and working as expected.
    – STW
    Nov 9, 2014 at 19:32

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