How to rename NIC in OEL 6.X

This is a quick note about host cloning and network interface (ethX) renaming.
As I wrote in my last post I have ESX lab now and I create a template of OEL 6.3 with all my settings and I would like use it for adding new VM (including RAC nodes). It is easy but there is one small issue – every time you clone VM network devices are renamed. Well MAC address is unique so it doesn’t surprise me but I would like to keep interface names like eth0, eth1 and eth2 and I got eth0, eth3, eth4 instead. Since OEL 5 (Redhat 5) all device name are generated by udev mechanism so I start my research there.
Well it was easier than I thought – there is a file in "/udev/rules.d" directory called "70-persistent-net.rules".
And here is file content:

# This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules
# program, run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
#
# You can modify it, as long as you keep each rule on a single
# line, and change only the value of the NAME= key.

# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:0c:29:ce:65:67", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"
# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:50:56:9c:22:95", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"
# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:50:56:9c:22:94", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth2"
# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:50:56:9c:22:98", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth3"
# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:50:56:9c:22:99", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth4"

Well this is it – all I need to do was to run "ifconfig –a" and confirm MAC addresses of existing interfaces. I have removed old entries and change interface names. My final configuration file looks like that

[root@localhost rules.d]# cat 70-persistent-net.rules
# This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules
# program, run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
#
# You can modify it, as long as you keep each rule on a single
# line, and change only the value of the NAME= key.

# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:0c:29:ce:65:67", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:50:56:9c:22:95", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x8086:0x100f (e1000)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:50:56:9c:22:94", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth2"

After changes I rerun udev mechanism

[root@localhost rules.d]# start_udev
Starting udev:  

And finally I have got correct configuration. Next lesson learned.
Regards,
Marcin