From: Shannon Nelson <redacted>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2020 14:50:09 -0700

+		if (!test_bit(IONIC_LIF_F_UP, lif->state) &&
+		    netif_running(netdev)) {
+			rtnl_lock();
+			ionic_open(netdev);
+			rtnl_unlock();
 		}

You're running into a major problem area here.

ionic_open() can fail, particularly because it allocates resources.

Yet you are doing this in an operational path that doesn't handle
and unwind from errors.

You must find a way to do this properly, because the current approach
can result in an inoperable interface.