Network Management
This page is dedicated to getting your network setup using static IP's and review networking settings. Also dive into some basic commands for use with net-tools.
RHEL & Ubuntu Network Management
Installing net-tools on your Linux system is essential for effective network management and troubleshooting. Utilities such as ping, traceroute, netstat enable adminis to monitor network connectivity,
Network manager provides many tools for accessing and updating your netowrk configurations. nmcli for the command line is a great tool, whereas nmtui provides a GUI tool for managing network settings.
I found tha the Network Manager tools like nmtui and nmcli do not work on my VM's in VMware Workstation17. Network manager cannot see my NIC so I was forced to learn about managing it from the conf files.
Here we go over other options to manage network settings like using the cockpit and nm-connection-editor.
Install net-tools
Install the networking tools that allow for specific utility commands for displaying network connections information.
Ubuntu
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sudo apt install net-tools
REHL9 (dnf = Dandified YUM)
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sudo dnf install net-tools
Key net-tools commands:
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ifconfig: The most commonly used command to display and configure network interface details.
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netstat: Shows active network connections, including their IP addresses, ports, and connection states.
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arp: Displays the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table, which maps IP addresses to MAC addresses.
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route: Shows the routing table, which determines the path packets take to reach a destination.
Click Images for Full Screen View
Install network-manager
Install the netowrk manager that provides specific utility GUI tool and commands for manging network connections.
Note that the install is network-manager but the service to check is NetworkManager ....
Ubuntu
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sudo apt update
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sudo apt install network-manager
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nmcli --version
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sudo systemctl start NetworkManager
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sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
REHL9 (dnf = Dandified YUM)
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sudo dnf install NetworkManager
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sudo systemctl start NetworkManager
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nmcli --version
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sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
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sudo systemctl status NetworkManager
nmcli command:
Use ifconfig to identify your NIC and change accordingly to your subnet. My sbnet was 192.168.254.0/24 and my gateway was 192.168.254.254 which also provided the DNS server services.
sudo nmcli connection modify ens160 ipv4.addresses 192.168.254.60/24 ipv4.gateway 192.168.254.254 ipv4.dns 192.168.254.254 ipv4.dns-search RHEL9.local ipv4.method manual
nmtui command:
You may prefer the GUI tool nmtui for setting the IP, simply run the command nmtui for a menu driven setup of your NIC.
Note: In the next section I go over how to manage using a conf file becuase my Ubuntu server would not see my NIC in the GUI
GUI Tool:
If you are totally new to Linux and want a simpler experience you can install the server or client with the GNOME desktop where tools like the network manager below will be available for managing the network setting.
File Level Network Management
So on Ubuntu server I could not get the Network Manager (nmcli) to see my NIC so I have to set the IP setting sin the conf
Run rommand to get name of the interface:
ifconfig
On my system I had the 50-cloud-init.yaml file in my /etc/netplan folder so thats where I updated the config for my network. Your files may be different so run ls /etc/netplan to see what files you have.
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Open the network configuration file:
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cd /etc/netplan/
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sudo nano 50-cloud-init.yaml
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Then add the following with the corret indentations, this is critical so make sure the indents are correct or it will fail.
The run these commands
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sudo netplan apply
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ip addr show ens33
Final Step:
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echo "network: {config: disabled}" | sudo tee /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg
Explanation:
This command creates a file named 99-disable-network-config.cfg in the /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/ directory with the content network: {config: disabled}. This directive tells cloud-init to disable its network configuration feature, allowing your manual settings to take precedence. By doing this, you ensure that your static IP configuration remains intact and is not overridden during system boot.
Other Tools
The are optional tools that require installation for example the GUI tools below require the OS GUI installation and the cockpit web interface requires install as well.
Easily access this GUI tool by running nm-connection-editor at the command line.
Mange the network setting, firewall and more from the cockpit web interface.
Usually after installation you can access it over port 9090.
