USB-C dongle for emergency access

[bok]

I have a small NUC that I bring with me while I travel and it has PVE installed on it. It has 2 built in network interfaces which will both be passed to a pfSense VM. This presents the problem of no longer having a network interface for the Proxmox host. I've got a usb-c dongle with a network jack on it and I'm trying to figure out a way I can use this as a backup to reach the proxmox host if I'm no longer able to access the proxmox host machine through the bridge network that connects to pfSense and my other containers. The usb-c dongle won't be connected during boot and it will only be connected if I'm unable to access the host via the bridge network.

I was able to assign a static interface name using a link file in /etc/systemd/network/ and I set a static IP under /etc/network/interfaces but the interface doesn't automatically come up when I connect a cable to it so I have to manually start it up using "ip link set eth1usbc up". Obviously I wouldn't be able to execute this command over the network if I weren't able to access the host in the first place. I believe it should come up automatically if I set it to "allow-hotplug" on that interface, but I'm not sure on the specifics here and I don't want to lose access to my Proxmox machine.

Is this setup possible and is there a way to configure it so I have a reliable backup using the usb-c network dongle in the event I'm unable to access PVE over the bridge network? Since this host is going to be virtualizing my entire network, in the even I'm unable to access PVE I'll just set an IP on my laptop within the same subnet and connect directly to the host machine and troubleshoot the issue if needed then remove the dongle once I'm done.

Thanks!

 

[bok]

bump

 

[leesteken]

Is this setup possible and is there a way to configure it so I have a reliable backup using the usb-c network dongle in the event I'm unable to access PVE over the bridge network?

Yes this should be possible. Proxmox can have more than one IP address, or just manage Proxmox via that subnet all the time. Find a USB-C ethernet dongle that works with Linux and configure it like a normal network device. If you intend to unplug the dongle, you might need to setup some udev rules to reactivate when you plug it back in.

 

[LnxBil]

We use Soekris and PCEngines hardware for the same purpose and they often come with serial console, so that you just plug in a serial adapter in your laptop and directly connect to your box. This may also work for you.