Replacing network card / NIC

[Zpunky]

I searched the forums but found nothing addressing this. If this is a repeat, I'd appreciate a redirect to the existing thread.
I won't have my hands on a 10Gb Ethernet card until after moving stuff to the new FreeNAS box and deprecating the old file server.
I'll have to use the onboard Broadcom NICs for setup and initial data transfer, but for production I'll want the full bandwidth of 10GbE (Intel X540-T1). I'm new to FreeNAS but from what I've read/seen, the primary NIC is only configurable through CLI.
What happens when you remove or disable that?
Is it possible to make it secondary to a newly installed card?
What is the preferred way of replacing/changing the primary NIC after FreeNAS is setup and running?
I'm new to BSD but have moderate LINUX CLI experience; in other words, with a road map I can do this in either the GUI or CLI. (DELL R620, E5620, 96GB RAM, 4x BCM5720 onboard)
Thank you

 

[dlavigne]

It shouldn't be that complicated. Simply plugin the new NIC into the network and unplug the old NIC from the network. If the network has a DHCP server, the new NIC should get a lease. If it doesn't, you can statically assign an IP address to the new NIC.

 

[joeschmuck]

It isn't complicated at all. When you install a second NIC and boot up your system you should have no issue configuring the new connection in the GUI under the Network section, no need to use CLI. You can also do it through the Console but the GUI is easier. To use the GUI you need to leave your first NIC operational but once you configure the second NIC you can disable the first one and rebbot to ensure it all works. Remember, the console is still usable.

 

[Zpunky]

Great, and thanks. I wasn't certain if I needed to edit any files for the OS to recognize the new card.

 

[Easygoer]

Hi,
I upgraded to a Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter - 10/100/1000Mbps, PCIe, MSI-X Support - EXPI9301CT., as per the recommendation in the powerpoint presentation by Cyberjock. Was hoping to get speeds greater than 45 Mb/sec. Had Realtek built-in lan on my motherboard (Specs are in my signature below}. Upon boot up i got a message that there was "no network connection" and no IP address. I did disable the onboard LAN in the BIOS. So I configured the card manually. Still the speeds are just around 50MB/sec. My router and switch both support gigabyte speeds. Any reason why the card is not recognized and configured automatically?.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[joeschmuck]

You should have started a new thread talking about your specific problem but I'll just jump in with some advice... I don't want to speculate on how you did things but it isn't automatic if you already had a NIC configured such as your internal NIC and later added the add-on card. It's not diffucult to configure as I think you figured out.

If you would have posted your speed results of your system prior to purchasing the Intel NIC someone would have told you that your speed will not improve much based on your system specs. The difference between a Realtek and Intel NIC is the Realtek uses your CPU to do most of the leg work and it this can greatly impact a system with a budget CPU. So with your CPU being fast, the Realtek NIC has no issue keeping up. The Intel NIC does all the work on it's card making it great for budget CPU applications. Cyberjock has a personal preference for Intel, I do not have a preference and think Realtek is fine for anyone who has a good CPU.

Your network speed could be one of many issues:
1) Your Benchmark tests are unknown so we have no idea how you are measuring your network speed which is a big factor.
2) Your hardware setup.
3) Your network setup.

Search these forums for how to benchmark and if you still have a slow machine, post a new thread specifically noting your issue and what you have attempted to do to solve it.

Good Luck.

 

[cyberjock]

I recommend Intel's because Realteks(aside from the potential performance problems) are sometimes unreliable. Not always, but sometimes. It runs great for minutes/hours/or days, then suddenly it stops working.