Process to associate a set of physical ports on a physical device with a set of software virtual interfaces. Process includes placing the set of software virtual interfaces to be associated with a set of N physical ports in an enabled state which has a first link state when no activation device is connected to a particular software virtual interface and a second link state when an activation device is connected to the particular software virtual interface. Connecting an activation device such as a loopback connector to a physical port to shift the software virtual interface to the second link state to map that particular physical port to that particular software virtual interface.