Receiving the error “Device eth0 does not seem to be present”? Here’s how we fix it.

Last week, we came across the same error while migrating the servers. And we fixed it by removing the 70-persistent-net.rules file and rebooting the server.

At Bobcares, we often receive requests to fix network errors as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let us discuss how our Support Engineers resolve the error within minutes.

Root cause for the error “Device eth0 does not seem to be present” to occur

This error occurs in VM which is cloned or migrated from another node. This error mainly occurs when the MAC address of eth0 in the new node differs.

When booting the server, NIC gets a unique MAC address and it does not match with one in ifcfg-eth0. On using command ifconfig, eth0 only displays the loopback interface details. When restarting the network service an error message displays as:

Let’s discuss how our Support Engineers resolve this error.

How we fix the error Device eth0 does not seem to be present?

Recently we had a customer who was facing problems when migrating a server from one node to another. Analyzing the ifcfg-eth0, the details in the file were correct. Let’s see how our Support Engineers resolve the error within minutes.

Method 1: Removing 70-persistent-net.rules file

The simplest way to resolve the error is to remove the 70-persistent-net.rules file. This file is associated with NIC’s MAC address with an interface name given to the NIC at startup. The file is present at:

/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Our Engineers remove the file by running the command

rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

After removing the file we reboot the server. On boot, the file will be automatically created with the correct MAC records.

Method 2: Changing MAC address

Another method is to manually enter the MAC id in ifcfg-eth0 file. Our Support Engineers use the command to get the MAC address.

ip link show

Once we get the MAC address. We replace the old MAC address to the new MAC Address.

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
HWADDR=MAC ADDRESS

Then save the file.

Finally, we use the below command to activate the network interface.

ifup eth0

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Conclusion

In short, we have discussed the causes of the network error. Also, we have discussed how our Support Engineers resolve the error by removing a file or by changing the MAC address.