This article describes the procedure to replace a Network Interface Card (NIC) in a XenServer Host. For example, the procedure can be used to replace a faulty NIC.

Requirements

• The XenServer host must be standalone and not joined to a resource pool.

• Replacing the NIC used as management interface requires the use of the host console.

Instructions

The following procedure describes the steps required to replace the management interface. If the NIC you are replacing is not the management interface you can skip Steps 2 and 8. Step 7 is only required if you need to assign an IP address to the PIF.

1. Shut down all the virtual machines on the host using XenCenter or from the console:
   xe vm-shutdown uuid=<vm_uuid>

2. Disable the management interface using the host-management-disable command:
   xe host-management-disable

3. Remove the PIF records of the NICs being replaced using the pif-forget command:
   xe pif-forget uuid=<pif_uuid>

4. Shut down the host and replace the NIC:
   xe host-disable host=<host_name>

5. Re-introduce the devices using the pif-introduce command:
   xe pif-introduce device=<device_name> host-uuid=<host-uuid> mac=<mac_address>
   Example:
   xe pif-introduce device=eth0 host-uuid=49e1cde9-a948-4f8f-86d5-3b681995566a mac=00:19:bb:2d:7e:7a

6. Verify the new configuration using the pif-list command:
   xe pif-list params=uuid,device,MAC

7. Reset the interface address configuration using the pif-reconfigure-ip command:
   xe pif-reconfigure-ip uuid=<pif_uuid> mode=static IP=<ip_address> netmask=<netmask> gateway=<gateway> DNS=<dns>

8. Reset the host management interface using the host management-reconfigure command:
   xe host-management-reconfigure pif-uuid=<pif_uuid>