diff --git a/lib/cmdlib.py b/lib/cmdlib.py
index e2374dbc66bca31bf45cd92eca1e575bd4595480..c1aa0630e68b1b1e7f75d127e45552385f38d8f5 100644
--- a/lib/cmdlib.py
+++ b/lib/cmdlib.py
@@ -3028,6 +3028,8 @@ class LUCreateInstance(LogicalUnit):
     if self.inst_ip is not None:
       nic.ip = self.inst_ip
 
+    network_port = None  # placeholder assignment for later
+
     disks = _GenerateDiskTemplate(self.cfg,
                                   self.op.disk_template,
                                   instance, pnode_name,
@@ -3041,6 +3043,7 @@ class LUCreateInstance(LogicalUnit):
                             nics=[nic], disks=disks,
                             disk_template=self.op.disk_template,
                             status=self.instance_status,
+                            network_port=network_port,
                             )
 
     feedback_fn("* creating instance disks...")
@@ -4001,6 +4004,7 @@ class LUQueryInstanceData(NoHooksLU):
         "memory": instance.memory,
         "nics": [(nic.mac, nic.ip, nic.bridge) for nic in instance.nics],
         "disks": disks,
+        "network_port": instance.network_port,
         "vcpus": instance.vcpus,
         }
 
diff --git a/lib/constants.py b/lib/constants.py
index fc5b8859667d8c33d6aecbbdce18f3239d07f1b6..6c65983427273c244acda196ba271bcc8a35aa03 100644
--- a/lib/constants.py
+++ b/lib/constants.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ from ganeti import _autoconf
 
 # various versions
 CONFIG_VERSION = 3
-PROTOCOL_VERSION = 8
+PROTOCOL_VERSION = 9
 RELEASE_VERSION = _autoconf.PACKAGE_VERSION
 OS_API_VERSION = 5
 EXPORT_VERSION = 0
diff --git a/lib/objects.py b/lib/objects.py
index 507e43d55b97c3b8485a100cf4a447bb67042e92..0629529b060ff7b8bfc210b2ae86e2ae62cca49b 100644
--- a/lib/objects.py
+++ b/lib/objects.py
@@ -490,6 +490,7 @@ class Instance(TaggableObject):
     "nics",
     "disks",
     "disk_template",
+    "network_port",
     ]
 
   def _ComputeSecondaryNodes(self):
diff --git a/scripts/gnt-instance b/scripts/gnt-instance
index b4ce4caf506d701284742a5699606bd5b2ed2ea8..fd6f48d6a4af229ad4e8c22796c2a574f3ce123b 100755
--- a/scripts/gnt-instance
+++ b/scripts/gnt-instance
@@ -596,6 +596,7 @@ def ShowInstanceConfig(opts, args):
     buf.write("    - primary: %s\n" % instance["pnode"])
     buf.write("    - secondaries: %s\n" % ", ".join(instance["snodes"]))
     buf.write("  Operating system: %s\n" % instance["os"])
+    buf.write("  Allocated network port: %s\n" % instance["network_port"])
     buf.write("  Hardware:\n")
     buf.write("    - VCPUs: %d\n" % instance["vcpus"])
     buf.write("    - memory: %dMiB\n" % instance["memory"])