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How network interfaces are named

Interfaces are named in several ways, depending on their type: physical, vif, or VLAN.

Physical interfaces are automatically assigned names based on the slot where the network adapter is installed.

The vif interface names are user specified. A vif interface can have any name that meets these criteria:

VLAN-interface-names:

<physical-interface-name>-<vlan-ID>

<vif-interface-name>-<vlan-ID>

Ethernet adapters can support one, two, or four ports. Ethernet interfaces are identified by a name consisting of "e", the slot number of the adapter, and the port on the adapter (if multiported adapter). A multiport adapter will have letters or numbers imprinted next to its ports.

The following table lists interface types, interface name formats, and example of names that use these identifiers.

Interface type Interface name format Examples of names
Physical interface single port e e0

e1

Physical interface multiple port (two or four ports) e e0a

e0b

e0c

e0d

e1a

e1b

vif

Any user-specified string that meets the criteria specified in the Prerequisites section of the Creating a single-mode vif page.

web_vif

proxy_vif

VLAN <physical-interface-name>-<vlan-ID> or <vif-interface-name>-<vlan-ID> e8-2

e8-3

Host names

The first time you run the setup program on a storage system, Data ONTAP creates a host name for each installed interface by appending the interface name to the host name of the storage system.

The following table shows examples of host names.

Interface type Host name
Single-port Ethernet interface in slot 0. toaster-e0
Quad-port Ethernet interface in slot 1. toaster-e1a

toaster-e1b

toaster-e1c

toaster-e1d