Configuring the network interface in Ubuntu 18.04

In that article we consider how to configure the network interface in Ubuntu Server:

• Browse the /etc/netplan directory
• Activate current settings
• If the system is not using netplan, get a list of available interfaces
• Configure the second and subsequent interface in the same way by applying the settings
• If the server does not change the IP address, restart it

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Configuring the network interface in Ubuntu 18.04 was a surprise to many. Although there exists, familiar to all, the configuration linux network interfaces file - /etc/network/interfaces, it says:

Configuration via ifupdown has been replaced by netplan. Configuration via/etc/netplan. If you want to go back to ifupdown configure via command:

We will not install anything else. Set up what there is. First, look at the content of the directory /etc/netplan.

Let's see, what is in this file.

The configuration file is written in YAML. The settings shown in the example above were made at the stage of installing the operating system. Let's take a closer look.

• network — beginning of the network configuration block;
• ethernets — this parameter reports that the next step will be to configure the protocol of the same name;
• enp0s3 — the name of the configurable network interface. It is likely that in your case the name will be different. A list of all interfaces can be viewed with the command ifconfig -a;
• addresses — block of IP addresses assigned to an interface with a network prefix. One ip-address is indicated as in the example, several addresses are indicated in square brackets “[and]”, separated by commas;
• gateway4 — IPv4 network gateway;
• nameservers — name server configuration block.
• addresses — it is in the nameservers block that indicate which DNS servers to access. Indicated without a network prefix. Several addresses are indicated in square brackets “[and]”, separated by commas.
• version — YAML language version.

We activate the current settings with the command:

We examined the main options. More setup examples are on the official website.

What if the system does not use netplan?

It's the old fashioned way. First we get a list of available interfaces:

In this case, there are 2 network interfaces without IP addresses (for now). Configured by DHCP. Let's move on to the settings.

A server receiving IP from a DHCP server is not a good solution. We bring the file to the form:

What does this mean.

• auto enp0s3 — automatic launch of a specific interface;
• iface enp0s3 inet static — reports on static configuration;
• address 10.10.2.6 —actually, the IPv4 address for this interface;
• netmask 255.255.255.0 — netmask.
• gateway 10.10.2.1 — IPv4-gateway
• dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 — specify DNS servers

The second and subsequent interfaces are configured in the same way or configured using a DHCP server. Apply settings:

If everything is done correctly, then we wait for the process of restarting the service.

Important. It happens that the settings file is correct, but the server does not change the IP address. In this case, restarting the server with the command helps:

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