Relationship between identifiers, sysfs, and network interface names

Edit online

7.1 LPAR mode z/VM guest KVM guest

PCI identifiers, sysfs paths, and network interface names provide different views of the same network device and are linked through the Linux device model.

Mapping from PCI ID to interface

A network device in Linux can be identified by:

  • PCI ID
  • sysfs device path
  • network interface name

Each PCI device is represented in sysfs: 


/sys/bus/pci/devices/<pci_id>/

Associated network interfaces are listed in: 


/sys/bus/pci/devices/<pci_id>/net/

Mapping from interface to PCI ID

Each network interface links back to its PCI device: 


/sys/class/net/<interface>/device