USB NIC for alternate login to single NIC host

[banksiaboy]

Hello all,
I'm setting up a mac mini 6.2 (late 2012 Corei7) as a proxmox host. It has a single NIC, and I'm going to attempt to run pfSense in a container as a 'router on a stick' via its connection to a level 2 switch.

I fully expect to fall on my face while setting up the trunk to the switch.

1. I have a USB3 NIC which I'd like to be able as a backup to access the host if I make a mess.
2. I would at least like access to the root cli via ssh.
3. It would be nice to have alternate access to the management web interface, but I would be ok if that was too hard.

Is this a reasonable thing to do? This is my first proxmox host setup.

Cheers...

 

[banksiaboy]

Worked it out myself...

1. Plug in the usb device with the NIC. (mine is multi-function)
2. dmesg will have relevant device identification events:

[328607.057728] usb 4-1.1: Product: USB 10/100/1000 LAN [328607.059464] usb 4-1.1: Manufacturer: Realtek [328607.061019] usb 4-1.1: SerialNumber: 000001 [328607.072947] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8152 [328607.076762] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether [328607.078843] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8153_ecm [328607.153370] usb 4-1.1: reset SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd [328607.204110] r8152 4-1.1:1.0: load rtl8153a-4 v2 02/07/20 successfully [328607.233721] r8152 4-1.1:1.0 eth0: v1.12.13 [328607.241629] r8152 4-1.1:1.0 enxa0cec8e111f7: renamed from eth0 [328611.400985] usb 2-1.5: new high-speed USB device number 3 using

my new interface name is: enxa0cec8e111f7
backup your '/etc/network/interfaces' file
edit such and (substituting your nic's device id, and your network) add similar to this:

allow-hotplug enxa0cec8e111f7 iface enxa0cec8e111f7 inet static address 192.168.0.7/24 gateway 192.168.0.1
at your bash prompt:

# ifreload -a # ifup enxa0cec8e111f7

No rebooting required.
I should now be able to recover access if I make mess of setting-up my Mac MIni router-on-a-stick...

RTFM here: https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/ifupdown/interfaces.5.en.html