In Data ONTAP physical ports, the first character describes the port's type and is always e to represent Ethernet. The second character is a numeral identifying the slot in which the port adapter is located; the numeral 0 (zero) indicates that the port is on the node's motherboard. The third character indicates the port's position on a multiport adapter. For example, the port name e0b indicates the second Ethernet port on the motherboard, and the port name e3a indicates the first Ethernet port on an adapter in slot 3.

Interface groups must be named by using the syntax a <number><letter>. For example, a0a, a0b, a1c, and a2a are valid interface group names.

VLANs must be named by using the syntax port_name-vlan-id, where port_name specifies the physical port or interface group and vlan-id specifies the VLAN ID. For example, e1c-80 is a valid VLAN name.