My host’s system disk is a 128GB SSD running Proxmox, with both a soft router and Windows installed. Since the available space was running out due to Windows, I decided to install Ubuntu. Seeing that my motherboard had a spare PCI slot, I bought a PCIe adapter card and added an SSD to expand Proxmox’s storage space. However, after installing the adapter card, I found that Proxmox was no longer accessible via the web interface. After extensive searching without finding a solution, I spent two days troubleshooting and discovered that the PCIe adapter card had unexpectedly occupied the network interface name. Here’s a detailed record of the process.

Issue Description

After installing the PCIe adapter card and SSD, I discovered that the Proxmox web page became inaccessible. Initially, I could see that the host obtained an IP address in the router, but later the device could no longer be found. When the SSD was removed, Proxmox could be accessed again, but with the SSD installed, it couldn’t. It was baffling.

Exploration and Troubleshooting

At first, I thought the issue was with the adapter card. I booted into a PE (Preinstallation Environment) system and found that the SSD on the PCIe adapter card was recognized, suggesting that the problem lay with Proxmox. However, I couldn’t pinpoint the exact issue. The SSD was visible in the PE system, but Proxmox remained inaccessible via the web interface. Was there a compatibility issue with Proxmox? Did I need to install additional Linux drivers? I wasn’t familiar with the process of installing drivers on Linux, which left me puzzled.

I decided to test with Ubuntu to see if it could recognize the SSD. To my surprise, Ubuntu detected the 256GB SSD without any issues, indicating that it wasn’t a driver problem. While checking Ubuntu’s network connections, I suddenly noticed something odd.

Previously, in my Proxmox setup, the bridged network interface was set to `enp2s0` (my motherboard has two network interfaces, shown as `enp2s0` and `enp3s0` in Proxmox). However, Ubuntu displayed the interface as `enp3s0`, even though I was clearly connected to the `enp2s0` port. After switching the network cable to the other port, Ubuntu displayed the interface as `enp4s0`. This confirmed that the PCIe adapter card had taken over the original `enp2s0` network interface name.

Solution

Once the problem was identified, the fix was straightforward. I removed the SSD, logged into Proxmox normally, went to the network settings, and changed the bridged interface from `enp2s0` to `enp3s0`. Then, I shut down the system, reinstalled the SSD, powered it back on, and the issue was resolved! I could finally access Proxmox without any problems.

Adding Storage

After Proxmox recognized the SSD, the next step was to format, partition, and mount the SSD to increase Proxmox’s storage space. Here’s a brief summary of the steps I followed:

1. In Proxmox, the new SSD appeared as `nvme0n1`. Initially, it was displayed as a partition, and after mounting, it appeared as mounted.

2. Create a folder for the disk mount point:

   mkdir /mnt/nvme0n1

3. Repartition the SSD:

   Run the command `fdisk /dev/nvme0n1`, press `n`, then `p`, and press Enter all the way to complete the process. Finally, press `w` to save and exit.

   The partition name displayed was `nvme0n1p1`, but I needed to format `nvme0n1` instead of `nvme0n1p1`.

4. Format the SSD:

   mkfs -t ext4 /dev/nvme0n1

   (Initially, I followed a guide that instructed to format `nvme0n1p1`, but it showed a directory error. Changing it to `nvme0n1` solved the issue.)

5. Mount the partition:

   mount /dev/nvme0n1 /mnt/nvme0n1

6. Set the system to auto-mount on boot:

   Edit the `/etc/fstab` file and add the following line:

   /dev/nvme0n1 /mnt/nvme0n1 ext4 defaults 0 0

   Since I couldn’t successfully modify the file from the command line, I used WinSCP to log in and edit it directly.

7. Add the directory in the Proxmox Datacenter:

Go to the Datacenter, add a directory, set an ID (any name will do), and set the directory path to `/mnt/nvme0n1`.

Check all content types, and click Add.

Remaining Issues

The PCIe adapter card still shows up as a network device in the system. Although the SSD is now usable, its speed is significantly slower than expected. The performance difference between this SSD and my system SSD is substantial, and even the Ubuntu system installed on this SSD runs very slowly.

Summary

It’s unclear whether this issue is a bug in the motherboard or in Proxmox. The fact that adding a PCIe adapter card resulted in a new network device that took over the original network interface name, causing the Proxmox web interface to be inaccessible, was quite puzzling. After searching extensively online without finding similar issues, I even considered updating the BIOS. Fortunately, Ubuntu helped me discover the network interface naming issue, which ultimately resolved the problem.