change ip address rhel 8

3 Ways to Set a Static IP Address in RHEL 8

Configuring a static IP address for your Linux distribution is a fundamental task and should be completed in few easy steps. With the release of RHEL 8 public beta, you can now configure your network interface in a few different ways using NetworkManager utilities.

In this tutorial we are going to show you few different ways to set a static IP address on RHEL 8 installation . Note that this article presumes, that you already know the network settings that you wish to apply for your system.

1. How to Configure Static IP Using Network Scripts Manually

You can configure a static IP address the old fashioned way by editing:

In my case the file is named:

To find your network interface name, you can use the following nmcli command .

To edit the file simply use your favorite editor and open the file:

Then restart the NetworkManager with:

Alternatively, you can reload the network interface by using:

Now you can then check the new IP address using ip command as shown.

2. How to Configure Static IP Using Nmtui Tool

Another way to configure static IP address for your RHEL 8 is by using nmtui tool, is a text user interface (TUI). To use it simply type the following command in your terminal.

This is will launch the program:

Choose to edit a connection, then select the interface:

In the next window you will be able to edit the network interface settings by moving the cursor with the arrow keys on your keyboard:

In this example, I have changed my IP address from 192.168.20.150 to 192.168.20.160 . To save the changes scroll down to the end of the page and select OK .

Then reload the network interface by choosing “ Activate a connection ”:

Then choose the connection name and select <Deactivate> :

And now select <Activate> to activate the interface with the new settings you have given it.

Then select <Back> to return to the main menu and then select “Quit” to exit.

Verify that the new IP address settings have been applied with:

3. How to Configure Static IP Using Nmcli Tool

Nmcli is a NetworkManager command line interface that can be used for obtaining information or configuring a network interface.

If you want to set a static IP address, you can use the following options:

Set the IP address for interface enp0s3 on RHEL 8 .

Set the gateway on RHEL 8 :

Inform the interface that it is using manual configuration (not dhcp etc.).

Configure DNS:

Reload the interface configuration:

Your changes will be saved in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg- .

Here is the configuration file that has been generated for me:

In this tutorial you have seen how to configure a static IP address with network scripts , nmtui and nmcli utilities in RHEL 8 . If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to submit them in the comment section below.

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In order to change configuration on a NIC or Bond in RHEL 8, you need to restart networking:

Cycling the interface/bond, or restarting NetworkManager, will not work Or you can reboot, but that’s silly.

I should note that this works if you set your configuration through nmcli, or if you edit the appropriate network scripts. This, I think, is changed since RHEL 7, as it was only necessary to bring down the particular NIC or Bond there, in RHEL 8 this won’t work.

Thank you so much, buddy, it works for me.

If I have Windows os on my base machine and I installed VM-ware for using Linux os and then I type ping command on the command line of Linux with up address of windows machine then can I communicate with both os

Yes! you can do that by putting a Network adapter option in VMWARE as Bridge type, then they both will communicate.

The command for “ Set the IP address for interface enp0s3 on RHEL 8 ” at step 3 is not correct. A “nmcli con mod enp0s3 ipv4.addresses 192.168.20.170/24” sets the ip for the connection-name “enp0s3”, not for the interface “enp0s3”. On my system they are not equal.

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How to Configure Static IP Address in RHEL 8 / CentOS 8

While Working on Linux Servers , assigning Static IP address on NIC / Ethernet cards is one of the common tasks that every Linux engineer do. If one configures the Static IP address correctly on a Linux server then he/she can access it remotely over network. In this article we will demonstrate what are different ways to assign or configure Static IP address on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 Server’s NIC.

Following are the ways to configure Static IP on a NIC,

• nmcli (command line tool)
• Network Scripts files(ifcfg-*)
• nmtui  (text based user interface)

Configure Static IP Address using nmcli command line tool

Whenever we install RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 server then ‘ nmcli ’, a command line tool is installed automatically, nmcli is used by network manager and allows us to configure static ip address on Ethernet cards.

Run the below ip addr command to list Ethernet cards on your server

As we can see in above command output, we have two NICs enp0s3 & enp0s8. Currently ip address assigned to the NIC is via dhcp server.

Let’s assume we want to assign the static IP address on first NIC (enp0s3) with the following details,

• IP address = 192.168.1.4
• Netmask = 255.255.255.0
• Gateway= 192.168.1.1
• DNS = 8.8.8.8

Run the following nmcli commands one after the another to configure static ip,

List currently active Ethernet cards using “ nmcli connection ” command,

Use beneath nmcli command to assign static ip on enp0s3,

# nmcli connection modify <interface_name> ipv4.address  <ip/prefix>

Note: In short form, we usually replace connection with ‘con’ keyword and modify with ‘mod’ keyword in nmcli command.

Assign ipv4 (192.168.1.4) to enp0s3 interface,

Set the gateway using below nmcli command,

Set the manual configuration (from dhcp to static),

Set DNS value as “8.8.8.8”,

To save the above changes and to reload the interface execute the beneath nmcli command,

Above command output confirms that interface enp0s3 has been configured successfully.Whatever the changes we have made using above nmcli commands, those changes is saved permanently under the file “etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp0s3”

To Confirm whether IP address has been to enp0s3 interface use the below ip command ,

Configure Static IP Address using network-scripts (ifcfg-) files

We can configure the static ip address to an ethernet card using its network-script or ‘ifcfg-‘ files. Let’s assume we want to assign the static ip address on our second Ethernet card ‘enp0s8’.

• IP= 192.168.1.91
• Netmask / Prefix = 24
• Gateway=192.168.1.1
• DNS1=4.2.2.2

Go to the directory “/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts” and look for the file ‘ifcfg- enp0s8’, if it does not exist then create it with following content,

Save and exit the file and then restart network manager service to make above changes into effect,

Now use below ip command to verify whether ip address is assigned to nic or not,

Above output confirms that static ip address has been configured successfully on the NIC ‘enp0s8’

Configure Static IP Address using ‘nmtui’ utility

nmtui is a text based user interface for controlling network manager, when we execute nmtui, it will open a text base user interface through which we can add, modify and delete connections. Apart from this nmtui can also be used to set hostname of your system.

Let’s assume we want to assign static ip address to interface enp0s3 with following details,

• IP address = 10.20.0.72
• Prefix = 24
• Gateway= 10.20.0.1

Run nmtui and follow the screen instructions, example is show

Select the first option ‘ Edit a connection ‘ and then choose the interface as ‘enp0s3’

Choose Edit and then specify the IP address, Prefix, Gateway and DNS Server ip,

Choose OK and hit enter. In the next window Choose ‘ Activate a connection ’

Select enp0s3 ,  Choose Deactivate & hit enter

Now choose Activate & hit enter,

Select Back and then select Quit,

Use below IP command to verify whether ip address has been assigned to interface enp0s3

Above output confirms that we have successfully assign the static IP address to interface enp0s3 using nmtui utility.

That’s all from this tutorial, we have covered three different ways to configure ipv4 address to an Ethernet card on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 system. Please do not hesitate to share feedback and comments in comments section below.

Read Also :  How to Install and Configure Nagios Core on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8

6 thoughts on “How to Configure Static IP Address in RHEL 8 / CentOS 8”

The ip tool can be used to add and remove connections, bridges, addresses, etc.

Yes, IP tool can be used to assigned the ip address but it will not persistent across the reboot.

Very good article!

Best regards!

It’s so usefull. here have lot of content and very easy ways this content and solution.

Very good. This article helped me a lot

Why do i lose my IP configuration after reboot in redhat 8? regardless of the method used, please i need help

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How To Configure Static IP Address in CentOS 8 / RHEL 8

The first task of an administrator who installs an operating system is bringing the server into the network after the OS installation. The server has to be configured with IP address so that it can be accessed over the network.

READ: How To Install CentOS 8 (With Screenshot)

READ: How To Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (With Screenshot)

Small organizations or home network sometimes uses DHCP enabled routers / DHCP server to assign an IP address to servers. But, bigger organizations use the static IP address for their servers.

Here, in this post, we will see how to configure static IP address in CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 .

Configure Static IP Address

Let us configure the system for the following information.

IP Address: 192.168.1.10 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 Gateway (Router): 192.168.1.1 DNS Server 1: 192.168.1.1 DNS Server 2: 8.8.8.8 Domain Name: itzgeek.local

Check available network interfaces

Use any one of the below commands to list the available network interfaces on the system.

The output of ifconfig -a may look like below. Here, we will configure the static IP address for enp0s3.

We can set a static IP address to the network interface by using below methods.

1. Editing ifcfg file

2. Using nmtui tool

In this method, we will edit the network interface file ifcfg-ifname under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory. For interface enp0s3 , the file name would be ifcfg-enp0s3 .

Set the IP address and other information as per your requirement.

In RHEL 8, if you make changes in the ifcfg file, NetworkManager needs to be informed. To do that, reload the connection profile using the following command.

To reload all profiles:

To reload only changed file:

Then, bring up the network connection with the below command.

2. Using nmtui Tool

You can also use nmtui – the text-based user interface for configuring network interfaces.

Select Edit a connection and press enter.

Choose the network interface and then press enter.

Tab to IPv4 CONFIGURATION and change it from Automatic to Manual .

Tab to Show and press enter.

Set the IP address to the interface as per your requirement.

Use down arrow key to scroll down, and tab to OK and press enter to finish the IP configuration.

Press ESC key go to the connections.

Select Activate a connection and press enter.

Select the network interface name and press enter to Deactivate the network interface.

Press enter again to Activate the network interface.

Verify Static IP Address

Use ifconfig -a command to verify the IP address.

Also, verify the DNS server entries.

That’s All. You have successfully configured a static IP address to a network interface in CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 . Please share your feedback in the comments section.

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How to configure static IP address in CentOS 8 / RHEL 8

Dynamic IP can be used in home system or Local Area Network (LAN) because they are only used internally.

It can be assigned through DHCP (Dynamic Network Configuration Protocol) by either your ISP or your router.

But, you should assign a static IP address to the Linux servers that are accessible through internet.

Also, large organizations use static IP to avoid network issues due to the unavailability of DHCP servers.

• Suggested Read: How to add secondary IP address on RHEL/CentOS 8

In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to assign or configure Static IP address on RHEL 7/8 and CentOS 7/8 Server’s.

Static IP address can be configured on Red Hat system using below two methods:

• Using nmcli command
• Using Network Scripts files (ifcfg-*)

Method-1: Configure a static IP address using nmcli command on CentOS 7/8 and RHEL 7/8

The nmcli is a command line tool, which is used for controlling NetworkManager and reporting network status. It is used to create, display, edit, delete, activate, and deactivate network connections.

Identifying interfaces

Before proceeding to configure a static IP address, use the ip command to identify all the available Ethernet interfaces on your system.

As we can see from the above output, We have an interface named "enp0s3" , which has a dynamic IP.

To view detailed DHCP configuration of enp0s3, run:

Let’s assume we want to assign the static IP address for “enp0s3” with the following details:

Configuring IP address

To do so, run the below nmcli commands one by one to configure static ip:

To assign a IP address:

To add a gateway:

To configure a static IP, run: This will change the “BOOTPROTO=dhcp” to “BOOTPROTO=none” .

This parameter is used to set the protocol to be used at startup to set the IP address of the interface. The options are as follows:

• none : No boot-time protocol should be used.
• dhcp : The DHCP protocol should be used.
• bootp : The BOOTP protocol should be used.

To add DNS entry, run:

To save these changes and to reload the interface, run:

You have successfully configured the interface “enp0s3” with static IP. All the new configuration has been saved permanently to the file “etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp0s3” . To view the details, run:

You can double confirm, if the new IP address is banded with the interface “enp0s3” by using ip command .

Method-2: Assign a static IP address by editing network scripts files on CentOS 7/8 and RHEL 7/8

For each network interface, a configuration file is created under the ‘/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts’ directory, which controls the interfaces for individual network devices.

When the system boots, it uses these files to determine what interfaces to bring up and how to configure them.

These files are named with the "ifcfg-" prefix and the name of the interface.

For instance, to configure a static IP address for “enp0s3” with the following details, see the below steps:

To do so, add or modify the above lines in the following configuration file.

Once you modified, run the below command to shut down the interface and bring it back:

Check if the new configurations are populated by using ip command :

Closing Notes

In this guide, we’ve shown you how to configure a static IP in RHEL 7/8 and CentOS 7/8 using two different methods.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to comment below.

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About Magesh Maruthamuthu

Love to play with all Linux distribution

One Comment on “How to configure static IP address in CentOS 8 / RHEL 8”

Hi, Thank a lot

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How to Configure Static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8

An IP Address is a unique numerical representation of a computer on a network. When you set up a text-only and GUI-less CentOS server, you may need to configure static IP on it. So, join this article to learn How to Configure Static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8. This guide will teach you three different methods to make you an expert in setting up the static IP address on your CentOS server. The three options you can use to set a static IP address include nmcli utility, nmtui utility, and editing an interface file directly. Let’s cut to the chase and move on with discovering the details.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites to Configure Static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8

To let this content help you to achieve your purpose for configuring a Static IP on CentOS, provide all the below considerations and then, go on.

• A system running RHEL/CentOS 8 .
• A non-root user with sudo privileges.

Tutorial Configure Static IP on CentOS 8 Using 3 CMD

Since the NetworkManager daemon manages the network connections of RHEL 8 / CentOS 8, changing a Network Interface Settings needs to interact with it. Previously, you have got familiar with different types of IP Addresses .

So, stay with us on this article to see how you can set an IP address, gateway, and DNS server for a NIC. In the following, different three methods will be presented and discussed. Before going through this guide, you must find out the name of your ethernet since a static IP address cannot be configured without this name. To list all the interfaces on your system, log into your server and run the command below.

You will see two interfaces in your output. The first virtual interface is used by the system to talk with itself. The second interface is your current IPv4 address that you want to modify. Let’s review the three methods you can use to configure static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8:

1. How to Setup a Static IP Address by Directly Editing the Configuration File

Firstly, to set up the static IP address on the CentOS 8 server, modify the interface configuration file manually. The network interface configurations on CentOS 8 server are located in the ‘/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts ‘ directory by default. The directory contains network configurations that are managed by the NetworkManager service.

To view all available configuration files, go to the ‘ /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts ‘ directory.

The name of the file is composed by the ifcfg- prefix plus the name of the interface. If you inspect the file related to your NIC, the actual setup will be shown as below.

You might have set up your CentOS 8 with DHCP which sets the protocol to use at boot to set the IP address of the interface. Since your server does not use a GUI, changing the static IP address requires some applications. Here, the BOOTPROTO option is set to dhcp. The possible options to use are:

• none: No protocol should be used
• bootp: Use the bootp protocol
• dhcp: Use the dhcp protocol

To set a static IPv4 address, the value of BOOTPROTO should be changed to none , and configure your IP, route prefix, gateway, and DNS server statically. The DNS server must be reported together with a progressive number (starting from 1) because it can be specified. When the modifications are finished, the file should be something like this:

To have effective changes, put down and up again the network interface. But it will also disturb existent ssh connections via said interface:

To verify if the IP has changed, you can use the following command.

2. How to use nmcli to Configure Static IP on CentOS 8

As we mentioned, there are three methods to Configure Static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8. So far, you reviewed one of these methods. Let’s see how the second one works.

nmcli is a command line tool that you can use to control NetworkManager and change network settings for a specific interface among other things. Here, you must use this command with the connection subcommand with the modify or the edit action.  The first lets you change the settings directly, while the second launch the nmcli shell, where you can operate interactively.

To use nmcli directly, you can run the command below and change the IP address of the “enp1s0” interface.

Since you have specified the routing prefix together with the IP using the so-called CIDR notation, you can use a similar syntax to change the gateway and the DNS settings:

If you prefer to not use any other boot protocol for the interface, you need to set the method to manual . In this way, the BOOTPROTO option will be set to none in the interface configuration file.

You are in the middle of learning how to configure static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8. You can also use an interactive method to perform the same changes. So, use the edit action and the name of the interface you want to edit to enter the nmcli shell .

Then, to get a list of the available ones, type help and run print to see all the connection properties or describe followed by a setting and one of its properties to get a description of the latter. Look at the example below:

And to change your interface address:

The same principle is used to change the other properties:

Finally, use the command below to save the changes you made.

To exit the nmcli shell, type the following command and press Enter.

Again, reload the interface using the command below to make the changes effective.

3. How to use nmtui to Configure Static IP on CentOS 8

So far, you learned two methods of three one to Configure Static IP on CentOS 8. Also, you reviewed the way you can change the parameter of a network interface by modifying its file manually or by using the nmcli command tool. In this section, you will learn how to control NetworkManager by using a text user interface. So, run the nmtui in your terminal to see the nmtui text user interface

Then, you should select Edit a connection and the name of the interface you desire to modify. Next, changing the values will be done as you see in the following example.

Once you see a desirable result, select ok and press enter to be taken back to the interface selection menu. To exit, select back and choose quit .

Use the command below to apply the settings you want to reload the interface connection.

How to make network configurations always be manual?

While Configure a static IP using NetworkManager, you can use the command below to do this:

How to disable NetworkManager?

If you do not want to remove the network manager, use the following command to disable it.

In this article, you learned How to Configure Static IP on RHEL/CentOS 8. Three different methods were explained with examples to help you see how to change options and what to add to the interface configuration file while you are editing it manually. The same changes could be made using nmcli as a command line tool and nmtui as a text user interface which are used to control the NetworkManager daemon.

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Configuring and managing networking, managing network interfaces and advanced networking features.

• You can configure bonds, VLANs, bridges, tunnels and other network types to connect the host to the network.
• IPSec and WireGuard provide secure VPNs between hosts and networks.
• RHEL also supports advanced networking features, such as policy-based routing and Multipath TCP (MPTCP).

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Chapter 1. Implementing consistent network interface naming

The udev device manager implements consistent device naming in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The device manager supports different naming schemes and, by default, assigns fixed names based on firmware, topology, and location information.

Without consistent device naming, the Linux kernel assigns names to network interfaces by combining a fixed prefix and an index. The index increases as the kernel initializes the network devices. For example, eth0 represents the first Ethernet device being probed on start-up. If you add another network interface controller to the system, the assignment of the kernel device names is no longer fixed because, after a reboot, the devices can initialize in a different order. In that case, the kernel can name the devices differently.

To solve this problem, udev assigns consistent device names. This has the following advantages:

• Device names are stable across reboots.
• Device names stay fixed even if you add or remove hardware.
• Defective hardware can be seamlessly replaced.
• The network naming is stateless and does not require explicit configuration files.

Generally, Red Hat does not support systems where consistent device naming is disabled. For exceptions, see the Is it safe to set net.ifnames=0 solution.

1.1. How the udev device manager renames network interfaces

To implement a consistent naming scheme for network interfaces, the udev device manager processes the following rule files in the listed order:

Optional: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-net.rules

This file exists only if you install the initscripts-rename-device package. The /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-net.rules file defines that the deprecated /usr/lib/udev/rename_device helper utility searches for the HWADDR parameter in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* files. If the value set in the variable matches the MAC address of an interface, the helper utility renames the interface to the name set in the DEVICE parameter of the ifcfg file.

If the system uses only NetworkManager connection profiles in keyfile format, udev skips this step.

Only on Dell systems: /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/71-biosdevname.rules

This file exists only if the biosdevname package is installed, and the rules file defines that the biosdevname utility renames the interface according to its naming policy, if it was not renamed in the previous step.

Install and use biosdevname only on Dell systems.

/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/75-net-description.rules

This file defines how udev examines the network interface and sets the properties in udev -internal variables. These variables are then processed in the next step by the /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules file. Some of the properties can be undefined.

/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules

This file calls the net_setup_link builtin of the udev service, and udev renames the interface based on the order of the policies in the NamePolicy parameter in the /usr/lib/systemd/network/99-default.link file. For further details, see Network interface naming policies .

If none of the policies applies, udev does not rename the interface.

Additional resources

• Why are systemd network interface names different between major RHEL versions solution

1.2. Network interface naming policies

By default, the udev device manager uses the /usr/lib/systemd/network/99-default.link file to determine which device naming policies to apply when it renames interfaces. The NamePolicy parameter in this file defines which policies udev uses and in which order:

The following table describes the different actions of udev based on which policy matches first as specified by the NamePolicy parameter:

• How the udev device manager renames network interfaces
• systemd.link(5) man page

1.3. Network interface naming schemes

The udev device manager uses certain stable interface attributes that device drivers provide to generate consistent device names.

If a new udev version changes how the service creates names for certain interfaces, Red Hat adds a new scheme version and documents the details in the systemd.net-naming-scheme(7) man page. By default, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 uses the rhel-9.0 naming scheme, even if you install or update to a later minor version of RHEL.

To prevent new drivers from providing more or other attributes for a network interface, the rhel-net-naming-sysattrs package provides the /usr/lib/udev/hwdb.d/50-net-naming-sysattr-allowlist.hwdb database. This database defines which sysfs values the udev service can use to create network interface names. The entries in the database are also versioned and influenced by the scheme version.

On RHEL 9.4 and later, you can also use all rhel-8.* naming schemes.

If you want to use a scheme other than the default, you can switch the network interface naming scheme .

For further details about the naming schemes for different device types and platforms, see the systemd.net-naming-scheme(7) man page.

1.4. Switching to a different network interface naming scheme

By default, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 uses the rhel-9.0 naming scheme, even if you install or update to a later minor version of RHEL. While the default naming scheme fits in most scenarios, there might be reasons to switch to a different scheme version, for example:

• A new scheme can help to better identify a device if it adds additional attributes, such as a slot number, to an interface name.
• An new scheme can prevent udev from falling back to the kernel-assigned device names ( eth* ). This happens if the driver does not provide enough unique attributes for two or more interfaces to generate unique names for them.

Prerequisites

• You have access to the console of the server.

List the network interfaces:

Record the MAC addresses of the interfaces.

Optional: Display the ID_NET_NAMING_SCHEME property of a network interface to identify the naming scheme that RHEL currently uses:

Note that the property is not available on the lo loopback device.

Append the net.naming-scheme= <scheme> option to the command line of all installed kernels, for example:

Reboot the system.

Based on the MAC addresses you recorded, identify the new names of network interfaces that have changed due to the different naming scheme:

After switching the scheme, udev names in this example the device with MAC address 00:00:5e:00:53:1a eno1np0 , whereas it was named eno1 before.

Identify which NetworkManager connection profile uses an interface with the previous name:

Set the connection.interface-name property in the connection profile to the new interface name:

Reactivate the connection profile:

Verification

Identify the naming scheme that RHEL now uses by displaying the ID_NET_NAMING_SCHEME property of a network interface:

• Network interface naming schemes

1.5. Customizing the prefix for Ethernet interfaces during installation

If you do not want to use the default device-naming policy for Ethernet interfaces, you can set a custom device prefix during the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) installation.

Red Hat supports systems with customized Ethernet prefixes only if you set the prefix during the RHEL installation. Using the prefixdevname utility on already deployed systems is not supported.

If you set a device prefix during the installation, the udev service uses the <prefix><index> format for Ethernet interfaces after the installation. For example, if you set the prefix net , the service assigns the names net0 , net1 , and so on to the Ethernet interfaces.

The udev service appends the index to the custom prefix, and preserves the index values of known Ethernet interfaces. If you add an interface, udev assigns an index value that is one greater than the previously-assigned index value to the new interface.

• The prefix consists of ASCII characters.
• The prefix is an alphanumeric string.
• The prefix is shorter than 16 characters.
• The prefix does not conflict with any other well-known network interface prefix, such as eth , eno , ens , and em .
• Boot the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation media.

In the boot manager, follow these steps:

• Select the Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux <version> entry.
• Press Tab to edit the entry.
• Append net.ifnames.prefix= <prefix> to the kernel options.
• Press Enter to start the installation program.
• Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

To verify the interface names, display the network interfaces:

• Performing a standard RHEL 9 installation

1.6. Configuring user-defined network interface names by using udev rules

You can use udev rules to implement custom network interface names that reflect your organization’s requirements.

Identify the network interface that you want to rename:

Record the MAC address of the interface.

Display the device type ID of the interface:

Create the /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules file, and add a rule for each interface that you want to rename:

Use only 70-persistent-net.rules as a file name if you require consistent device names during the boot process. The dracut utility adds a file with this name to the initrd image if you regenerate the RAM disk image.

For example, use the following rule to rename the interface with MAC address 00:00:5e:00:53:1a to provider0 :

Optional: Regenerate the initrd RAM disk image:

You require this step only if you need networking capabilities in the RAM disk. For example, this is the case if the root file system is stored on a network device, such as iSCSI.

Identify which NetworkManager connection profile uses the interface that you want to rename:

Unset the connection.interface-name property in the connection profile:

Temporarily, configure the connection profile to match both the new and the previous interface name:

Reboot the system:

Verify that the device with the MAC address that you specified in the link file has been renamed to provider0 :

Configure the connection profile to match only the new interface name:

You have now removed the old interface name from the connection profile.

• udev(7) man page

1.7. Configuring user-defined network interface names by using systemd link files

You can use systemd link files to implement custom network interface names that reflect your organization’s requirements.

• You must meet one of these conditions: NetworkManager does not manage this interface, or the corresponding connection profile uses the keyfile format .

If it does not already exist, create the /etc/systemd/network/ directory:

For each interface that you want to rename, create a 70-*.link file in the /etc/systemd/network/ directory with the following content:

Use a file name with a 70- prefix to keep the file names consistent with the udev rules-based solution.

For example, create the /etc/systemd/network/70-provider0.link file with the following content to rename the interface with MAC address 00:00:5e:00:53:1a to provider0 :

Reactivate the connection profile.

1.8. Assigning alternative names to a network interface by using systemd link files

With alternative interface naming, the kernel can assign additional names to network interfaces. You can use these alternative names in the same way as the normal interface names in commands that require a network interface name.

• You must use ASCII characters for the alternative name.
• The alternative name must be shorter than 128 characters.

Display the network interface names and their MAC addresses:

Record the MAC address of the interface to which you want to assign an alternative name.

For each interface that must have an alternative name, create a *.link file in the /etc/systemd/network/ directory with the following content:

For example, create the /etc/systemd/network/70-altname.link file with the following content to assign provider as an alternative name to the interface with MAC address 00:00:5e:00:53:1a :

Regenerate the initrd RAM disk image:

Use the alternative interface name. For example, display the IP address settings of the device with the alternative name provider :

• What is AlternativeNamesPolicy in Interface naming scheme?

Chapter 2. Configuring an Ethernet connection

NetworkManager creates a connection profile for each Ethernet adapter that is installed in a host. By default, this profile uses DHCP for both IPv4 and IPv6 connections. Modify this automatically-created profile or add a new one in the following cases:

• The network requires custom settings, such as a static IP address configuration.
• You require multiple profiles because the host roams among different networks.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides administrators different options to configure Ethernet connections. For example:

• Use nmcli to configure connections on the command line.
• Use nmtui to configure connections in a text-based user interface.
• Use the GNOME Settings menu or nm-connection-editor application to configure connections in a graphical interface.
• Use nmstatectl to configure connections through the Nmstate API.
• Use RHEL system roles to automate the configuration of connections on one or multiple hosts.

If you want to manually configure Ethernet connections on hosts running in the Microsoft Azure cloud, disable the cloud-init service or configure it to ignore the network settings retrieved from the cloud environment. Otherwise, cloud-init will override on the next reboot the network settings that you have manually configured.

2.1. Configuring an Ethernet connection by using nmcli

If you connect a host to the network over Ethernet, you can manage the connection’s settings on the command line by using the nmcli utility.

• A physical or virtual Ethernet Network Interface Controller (NIC) exists in the server’s configuration.

List the NetworkManager connection profiles:

By default, NetworkManager creates a profile for each NIC in the host. If you plan to connect this NIC only to a specific network, adapt the automatically-created profile. If you plan to connect this NIC to networks with different settings, create individual profiles for each network.

If you want to create an additional connection profile, enter:

Skip this step to modify an existing profile.

Optional: Rename the connection profile:

On hosts with multiple profiles, a meaningful name makes it easier to identify the purpose of a profile.

Display the current settings of the connection profile:

Configure the IPv4 settings:

To use DHCP, enter:

Skip this step if ipv4.method is already set to auto (default).

To set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, DNS servers, and search domain, enter:

Configure the IPv6 settings:

To use stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC), enter:

Skip this step if ipv6.method is already set to auto (default).

To set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, DNS servers, and search domain, enter:

To customize other settings in the profile, use the following command:

Enclose values with spaces or semicolons in quotes.

Activate the profile:

Display the IP settings of the NIC:

Display the IPv4 default gateway:

Display the IPv6 default gateway:

Display the DNS settings:

If multiple connection profiles are active at the same time, the order of nameserver entries depend on the DNS priority values in these profile and the connection types.

Use the ping utility to verify that this host can send packets to other hosts:

Troubleshooting

• Verify that the network cable is plugged-in to the host and a switch.
• Check whether the link failure exists only on this host or also on other hosts connected to the same switch.
• Verify that the network cable and the network interface are working as expected. Perform hardware diagnosis steps and replace defect cables and network interface cards.
• If the configuration on the disk does not match the configuration on the device, starting or restarting NetworkManager creates an in-memory connection that reflects the configuration of the device. For further details and how to avoid this problem, see the NetworkManager duplicates a connection after restart of NetworkManager service solution.
• nm-settings(5) man page

2.2. Configuring an Ethernet connection by using the nmcli interactive editor

Start nmcli in interactive mode:

To create an additional connection profile, enter:

To modify an existing connection profile, enter:

Do not use quotes to set an ID that contains spaces to avoid that nmcli makes the quotes part of the name. For example, to set Example Connection as ID, enter set connection.id Example Connection .

If you create a new connection profile, set the network interface:

Save and activate the connection:

Leave the interactive mode:

• If the configuration on the disk does not match the configuration on the device, starting or restarting NetworkManager creates an in-memory connection that reflects the configuration of the device. For further details and how to avoid this problem, see the NetworkManager duplicates a connection after restart of NetworkManager service solution
• nmcli(1) man page

2.3. Configuring an Ethernet connection by using nmtui

If you connect a host to the network over Ethernet, you can manage the connection’s settings in a text-based user interface by using the nmtui application. Use nmtui to create new profiles and to update existing ones on a host without a graphical interface.

• Navigate by using the cursor keys.
• Press a button by selecting it and hitting Enter .
• Select and clear checkboxes by using Space .

If you do not know the network device name you want to use in the connection, display the available devices:

Start nmtui :

• Select Edit a connection , and press Enter .

Choose whether to add a new connection profile or to modify an existing one:

To create a new profile:

• Press Add .
• Select Ethernet from the list of network types, and press Enter .
• To modify an existing profile, select the profile from the list, and press Enter .

Optional: Update the name of the connection profile.

• If you create a new connection profile, enter the network device name into the Device field.

Depending on your environment, configure the IP address settings in the IPv4 configuration and IPv6 configuration areas accordingly. For this, press the button next to these areas, and select:

• Disabled , if this connection does not require an IP address.
• Automatic , if a DHCP server dynamically assigns an IP address to this NIC.

Manual , if the network requires static IP address settings. In this case, you must fill further fields:

• Press Show next to the protocol you want to configure to display additional fields.

Press Add next to Addresses , and enter the IP address and the subnet mask in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) format.

If you do not specify a subnet mask, NetworkManager sets a /32 subnet mask for IPv4 addresses and /64 for IPv6 addresses.

• Enter the address of the default gateway.
• Press Add next to DNS servers , and enter the DNS server address.
• Press Add next to Search domains , and enter the DNS search domain.

Figure 2.1. Example of an Ethernet connection with static IP address settings

• Press OK to create and automatically activate the new connection.
• Press Back to return to the main menu.
• Select Quit , and press Enter to close the nmtui application.
• Configuring NetworkManager to avoid using a specific profile to provide a default gateway
• Configuring the order of DNS servers

2.4. Configuring an Ethernet connection by using control-center

If you connect a host to the network over Ethernet, you can manage the connection’s settings with a graphical interface by using the GNOME Settings menu.

Note that control-center does not support as many configuration options as the nm-connection-editor application or the nmcli utility.

• GNOME is installed.
• Press the Super key, enter Settings , and press Enter .
• Select Network in the navigation on the left.
• To create a new profile, click the + button next to the Ethernet entry.
• To modify an existing profile, click the gear icon next to the profile entry.

Optional: On the Identity tab, update the name of the connection profile.

Depending on your environment, configure the IP address settings on the IPv4 and IPv6 tabs accordingly:

• To use DHCP or IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC), select Automatic (DHCP) as method (default).

To set a static IP address, network mask, default gateway, DNS servers, and search domain, select Manual as method, and fill the fields on the tabs:

Depending on whether you add or modify a connection profile, click the Add or Apply button to save the connection.

The GNOME control-center automatically activates the connection.

Troubleshooting steps

2.5. Configuring an Ethernet connection by using nm-connection-editor

If you connect a host to the network over Ethernet, you can manage the connection’s settings with a graphical interface by using the nm-connection-editor application.

Open a terminal, and enter:

• Click the + button
• Select Ethernet as connection type, and click Create .
• To modify an existing profile, double-click the profile entry.

Optional: Update the name of the profile in the Connection Name field.

If you create a new profile, select the device on the Ethernet tab:

Depending on your environment, configure the IP address settings on the IPv4 Settings and IPv6 Settings tabs accordingly:

• Click Save .
• Close nm-connection-editor .

Additional Resources

2.6. Configuring an Ethernet connection with a static IP address by using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure an Ethernet connection through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

• The nmstate package is installed.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-ethernet-profile.yml , with the following content:

These settings define an Ethernet connection profile for the enp1s0 device with the following settings:

• A static IPv4 address - 192.0.2.1 with the /24 subnet mask
• A static IPv6 address - 2001:db8:1::1 with the /64 subnet mask
• An IPv4 default gateway - 192.0.2.254
• An IPv6 default gateway - 2001:db8:1::fffe
• An IPv4 DNS server - 192.0.2.200
• An IPv6 DNS server - 2001:db8:1::ffbb
• A DNS search domain - example.com

Optional: You can define the identifier: mac-address and mac-address: <mac_address> properties in the interfaces property to identify the network interface card by its MAC address instead of its name, for example:

Apply the settings to the system:

Display the current state in YAML format:

• nmstatectl(8) man page
• /usr/share/doc/nmstate/examples/ directory

2.7. Configuring an Ethernet connection with a static IP address by using the network RHEL system role with an interface name

You can remotely configure an Ethernet connection by using the network RHEL system role.

• You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes
• You are logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
• The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has sudo permissions on them.
• A physical or virtual Ethernet device exists in the server’s configuration.
• The managed nodes use NetworkManager to configure the network.

Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml , with the following content:

• A static IPv4 address - 192.0.2.1 with a /24 subnet mask
• A static IPv6 address - 2001:db8:1::1 with a /64 subnet mask

Validate the playbook syntax:

Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

Run the playbook:

• /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.network/README.md file
• /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/network/ directory

2.8. Configuring an Ethernet connection with a static IP address by using the network RHEL system role with a device path

You can remotely configure an Ethernet connection using the network RHEL system role.

You can identify the device path with the following command:

These settings define an Ethernet connection profile with the following settings:

The match parameter in this example defines that Ansible applies the play to devices that match PCI ID 0000:00:0[1-3].0 , but not 0000:00:02.0 . For further details about special modifiers and wild cards you can use, see the match parameter description in the /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.network/README.md file.

2.9. Configuring an Ethernet connection with a dynamic IP address by using nmstatectl

• A DHCP server is available in the network.

These settings define an Ethernet connection profile for the enp1s0 device. The connection retrieves IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, default gateway, routes, DNS servers, and search domains from a DHCP server and IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC).

2.10. Configuring an Ethernet connection with a dynamic IP address by using the network RHEL system role with an interface name

You can remotely configure an Ethernet connection using the network RHEL system role. For connections with dynamic IP address settings, NetworkManager requests the IP settings for the connection from a DHCP server.

• A DHCP server is available in the network

2.11. Configuring an Ethernet connection with a dynamic IP address by using the network RHEL system role with a device path

• The managed hosts use NetworkManager to configure the network.

These settings define an Ethernet connection profile. The connection retrieves IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, default gateway, routes, DNS servers, and search domains from a DHCP server and IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC).

The match parameter defines that Ansible applies the play to devices that match PCI ID 0000:00:0[1-3].0 , but not 0000:00:02.0 .

2.12. Configuring multiple Ethernet interfaces by using a single connection profile by interface name

In most cases, one connection profile contains the settings of one network device. However, NetworkManager also supports wildcards when you set the interface name in connection profiles. If a host roams between Ethernet networks with dynamic IP address assignment, you can use this feature to create a single connection profile that you can use for multiple Ethernet interfaces.

• Multiple physical or virtual Ethernet devices exist in the server’s configuration.
• No connection profile exists on the host.

Add a connection profile that applies to all interface names starting with enp :

Display all settings of the single connection profile:

3 indicates the number of interfaces active on the connection profile at the same time, and not the number of network interfaces in the connection profile. The connection profile uses all devices that match the pattern in the match.interface-name parameter and, therefore, the connection profiles have the same Universally Unique Identifier (UUID).

Display the status of the connections:

2.13. Configuring a single connection profile for multiple Ethernet interfaces using PCI IDs

The PCI ID is a unique identifier of the devices connected to the system. The connection profile adds multiple devices by matching interfaces based on a list of PCI IDs. You can use this procedure to connect multiple device PCI IDs to the single connection profile.

Identify the device path. For example, to display the device paths of all interfaces starting with enp , enter :

Add a connection profile that applies to all PCI IDs matching the 0000:00:0[7-8].0 expression:

Display the status of the connection:

To display all settings of the connection profile:

This connection profile uses all devices with a PCI ID which match the pattern in the match.path parameter and, therefore, the connection profiles have the same Universally Unique Identifier (UUID).

Chapter 3. Configuring a network bond

A network bond is a method to combine or aggregate physical and virtual network interfaces to provide a logical interface with higher throughput or redundancy. In a bond, the kernel handles all operations exclusively. You can create bonds on different types of devices, such as Ethernet devices or VLANs.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides administrators different options to configure team devices. For example:

• Use nmcli to configure bond connections using the command line.
• Use the RHEL web console to configure bond connections using a web browser.
• Use nmtui to configure bond connections in a text-based user interface.
• Use the nm-connection-editor application to configure bond connections in a graphical interface.
• Use nmstatectl to configure bond connections through the Nmstate API.
• Use RHEL system roles to automate the bond configuration on one or multiple hosts.

3.1. Understanding the default behavior of controller and port interfaces

Consider the following default behavior when managing or troubleshooting team or bond port interfaces using the NetworkManager service:

• Starting the controller interface does not automatically start the port interfaces.
• Starting a port interface always starts the controller interface.
• Stopping the controller interface also stops the port interface.
• A controller without ports can start static IP connections.
• A controller without ports waits for ports when starting DHCP connections.
• A controller with a DHCP connection waiting for ports completes when you add a port with a carrier.
• A controller with a DHCP connection waiting for ports continues waiting when you add a port without carrier.

3.2. Upstream switch configuration depending on the bonding modes

Depending on the bonding mode you want to use, you must configure the ports on the switch:

For details how to configure your switch, see the documentation of the switch.

Certain network bonding features, such as the fail-over mechanism, do not support direct cable connections without a network switch. For further details, see the Is bonding supported with direct connection using crossover cables? KCS solution.

3.3. Configuring a network bond by using nmcli

To configure a network bond on the command line, use the nmcli utility.

• Two or more physical or virtual network devices are installed on the server.
• To use Ethernet devices as ports of the bond, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.

To use team, bridge, or VLAN devices as ports of the bond, you can either create these devices while you create the bond or you can create them in advance as described in:

• Configuring a network team by using nmcli
• Configuring a network bridge by using nmcli
• Configuring VLAN tagging by using nmcli

Create a bond interface:

This command creates a bond named bond0 that uses the active-backup mode.

To additionally set a Media Independent Interface (MII) monitoring interval, add the miimon=interval option to the bond.options property, for example:

Display the network interfaces, and note names of interfaces you plan to add to the bond:

In this example:

• enp7s0 and enp8s0 are not configured. To use these devices as ports, add connection profiles in the next step.
• bridge0 and bridge1 have existing connection profiles. To use these devices as ports, modify their profiles in the next step.

Assign interfaces to the bond:

If the interfaces you want to assign to the bond are not configured, create new connection profiles for them:

These commands create profiles for enp7s0 and enp8s0 , and add them to the bond0 connection.

To assign an existing connection profile to the bond:

Set the controller parameter of these connections to bond0 :

These commands assign the existing connection profiles named bridge0 and bridge1 to the bond0 connection.

Reactivate the connections:

To use this bond device as a port of other devices, enter:

• To use DHCP, no action is required.

To set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the bond0 connection, enter:

• To use stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC), no action is required.

To set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the bond0 connection, enter:

Optional: If you want to set any parameters on the bond ports, use the following command:

Activate the connection:

Verify that the ports are connected, and the CONNECTION column displays the port’s connection name:

When you activate any port of the connection, NetworkManager also activates the bond, but not the other ports of it. You can configure that Red Hat Enterprise Linux enables all ports automatically when the bond is enabled:

Enable the connection.autoconnect-ports parameter of the bond’s connection:

Reactivate the bridge:

Temporarily remove the network cable from the host.

Note that there is no method to properly test link failure events using software utilities. Tools that deactivate connections, such as nmcli , show only the bonding driver’s ability to handle port configuration changes and not actual link failure events.

Display the status of the bond:

3.4. Configuring a network bond by using the RHEL web console

Use the RHEL web console to configure a network bond if you prefer to manage network settings using a web browser-based interface.

• You are logged in to the RHEL web console.
• To use Ethernet devices as members of the bond, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.

To use team, bridge, or VLAN devices as members of the bond, create them in advance as described in:

• Configuring a network team by using the RHEL web console
• Configuring a network bridge by using the RHEL web console
• Configuring VLAN tagging by using the RHEL web console
• Select the Networking tab in the navigation on the left side of the screen.
• Click Add bond in the Interfaces section.
• Enter the name of the bond device you want to create.
• Select the interfaces that should be members of the bond.

Select the mode of the bond.

If you select Active backup , the web console shows the additional field Primary in which you can select the preferred active device.

• Set the link monitoring mode. For example, when you use the Adaptive load balancing mode, set it to ARP .

Optional: Adjust the monitoring interval, link up delay, and link down delay settings. Typically, you only change the defaults for troubleshooting purposes.

• Click Apply .

By default, the bond uses a dynamic IP address. If you want to set a static IP address:

• Click the name of the bond in the Interfaces section.
• Click Edit next to the protocol you want to configure.
• Select Manual next to Addresses , and enter the IP address, prefix, and default gateway.
• In the DNS section, click the + button, and enter the IP address of the DNS server. Repeat this step to set multiple DNS servers.
• In the DNS search domains section, click the + button, and enter the search domain.

If the interface requires static routes, configure them in the Routes section.

• Click Apply

Select the Networking tab in the navigation on the left side of the screen, and check if there is incoming and outgoing traffic on the interface:

Note that there is no method to properly test link failure events using software utilities. Tools that deactivate connections, such as the web console, show only the bonding driver’s ability to handle member configuration changes and not actual link failure events.

3.5. Configuring a network bond by using nmtui

The nmtui application provides a text-based user interface for NetworkManager. You can use nmtui to configure a network bond on a host without a graphical interface.

If you do not know the network device names on which you want configure a network bond, display the available devices:

• Select Bond from the list of network types, and press Enter .

Optional: Enter a name for the NetworkManager profile to be created.

• Enter the bond device name to be created into the Device field.

Add ports to the bond to be created:

• Press Add next to the Slaves list.
• Select the type of the interface you want to add as port to the bond, for example, Ethernet .
• Optional: Enter a name for the NetworkManager profile to be created for this bond port.
• Enter the port’s device name into the Device field.

Press OK to return to the window with the bond settings.

Figure 3.1. Adding an Ethernet device as port to a bond

• Repeat these steps to add more ports to the bond.
• Set the bond mode. Depending on the value you set, nmtui displays additional fields for settings that are related to the selected mode.
• Disabled , if the bond does not require an IP address.
• Automatic , if a DHCP server or stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC) dynamically assigns an IP address to the bond.

Figure 3.2. Example of a bond connection with static IP address settings

3.6. Configuring a network bond by using nm-connection-editor

If you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a graphical interface, you can configure network bonds using the nm-connection-editor application.

Note that nm-connection-editor can add only new ports to a bond. To use an existing connection profile as a port, create the bond by using the nmcli utility as described in Configuring a network bond by using nmcli .

• To use team, bond, or VLAN devices as ports of the bond, ensure that these devices are not already configured.

Open a terminal, and enter nm-connection-editor :

• Click the + button to add a new connection.
• Select the Bond connection type, and click Create .

On the Bond tab:

• Optional: Set the name of the bond interface in the Interface name field.

Click the Add button to add a network interface as a port to the bond.

• Select the connection type of the interface. For example, select Ethernet for a wired connection.
• Optional: Set a connection name for the port.
• If you create a connection profile for an Ethernet device, open the Ethernet tab, and select in the Device field the network interface you want to add as a port to the bond. If you selected a different device type, configure it accordingly. Note that you can only use Ethernet interfaces in a bond that are not configured.

Repeat the previous step for each interface you want to add to the bond:

• Optional: Set other options, such as the Media Independent Interface (MII) monitoring interval.

Configure the IP address settings on both the IPv4 Settings and IPv6 Settings tabs:

• To use this bridge device as a port of other devices, set the Method field to Disabled .
• To use DHCP, leave the Method field at its default, Automatic (DHCP) .

To use static IP settings, set the Method field to Manual and fill the fields accordingly:

• Configuring a network team by using nm-connection-editor
• Configuring a network bridge by using nm-connection-editor
• Configuring VLAN tagging by using nm-connection-editor

3.7. Configuring a network bond by using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure a network bond through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

Depending on your environment, adjust the YAML file accordingly. For example, to use different devices than Ethernet adapters in the bond, adapt the base-iface attribute and type attributes of the ports you use in the bond.

• To use Ethernet devices as ports in the bond, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.
• To use team, bridge, or VLAN devices as ports in the bond, set the interface name in the port list, and define the corresponding interfaces.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-bond.yml , with the following content:

These settings define a network bond with the following settings:

• Network interfaces in the bond: enp1s0 and enp7s0
• Mode: active-backup
• Static IPv4 address: 192.0.2.1 with a /24 subnet mask
• Static IPv6 address: 2001:db8:1::1 with a /64 subnet mask
• IPv4 default gateway: 192.0.2.254
• IPv6 default gateway: 2001:db8:1::fffe
• IPv4 DNS server: 192.0.2.200
• IPv6 DNS server: 2001:db8:1::ffbb
• DNS search domain: example.com

Display the status of the devices and connections:

Display all settings of the connection profile:

Display the connection settings in YAML format:

3.8. Configuring a network bond by using the network RHEL system role

You can remotely configure a network bond by using the network RHEL system role.

• Ports of the bond - enp7s0 and enp8s0

Bond mode - active-backup

Set the IP configuration on the bond and not on the ports of the Linux bond.

3.9. Creating a network bond to enable switching between an Ethernet and wireless connection without interrupting the VPN

RHEL users who connect their workstation to their company’s network typically use a VPN to access remote resources. However, if the workstation switches between an Ethernet and Wi-Fi connection, for example, if you release a laptop from a docking station with an Ethernet connection, the VPN connection is interrupted. To avoid this problem, you can create a network bond that uses the Ethernet and Wi-Fi connection in active-backup mode.

• The host contains an Ethernet and a Wi-Fi device.

An Ethernet and Wi-Fi NetworkManager connection profile has been created and both connections work independently.

This procedure uses the following connection profiles to create a network bond named bond0 :

• Docking_station associated with the enp11s0u1 Ethernet device
• Wi-Fi associated with the wlp1s0 Wi-Fi device

Create a bond interface in active-backup mode:

This command names both the interface and connection profile bond0 .

Configure the IPv4 settings of the bond:

• If a DHCP server in your network assigns IPv4 addresses to hosts, no action is required.

If your local network requires static IPv4 addresses, set the address, network mask, default gateway, DNS server, and DNS search domain to the bond0 connection:

Configure the IPv6 settings of the bond:

• If your router or a DHCP server in your network assigns IPv6 addresses to hosts, no action is required.

If your local network requires static IPv6 addresses, set the address, network mask, default gateway, DNS server, and DNS search domain to the bond0 connection:

Display the connection profiles:

You require the names of the connection profiles and the Ethernet device name in the next steps.

Assign the connection profile of the Ethernet connection to the bond:

Assign the connection profile of the Wi-Fi connection to the bond:

If your Wi-Fi network uses MAC filtering to allow only MAC addresses on a allow list to access the network, configure that NetworkManager dynamically assigns the MAC address of the active port to the bond:

With this setting, you must set only the MAC address of the Wi-Fi device to the allow list instead of the MAC address of both the Ethernet and Wi-Fi device.

Set the device associated with the Ethernet connection as primary device of the bond:

With this setting, the bond always uses the Ethernet connection if it is available.

Configure that NetworkManager automatically activates ports when the bond0 device is activated:

Activate the bond0 connection:

Display the currently active device, the status of the bond and its ports:

• Configuring an Ethernet connection
• Managing Wi-Fi connections
• Configuring network bonding

3.10. The different network bonding modes

The Linux bonding driver provides link aggregation. Bonding is the process of aggregating multiple network interfaces in parallel to provide a single logical bonded interface. The actions of a bonded interface depend on the bonding policy that is also known as mode. The different modes provide either load-balancing or hot standby services.

The following modes exist:

Balance-rr uses the round-robin algorithm that sequentially transmits packets from the first available port to the last one. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

This mode requires switch configuration of a port aggregation group, also called EtherChannel or similar port grouping. An EtherChannel is a port link aggregation technology to group multiple physical Ethernet links to one logical Ethernet link.

The drawback of this mode is that it is not suitable for heavy workloads and if TCP throughput or ordered packet delivery is essential.

Active-backup uses the policy that determines that only one port is active in the bond. This mode provides fault tolerance and does not require any switch configuration.

If the active port fails, an alternate port becomes active. The bond sends a gratuitous address resolution protocol (ARP) response to the network. The gratuitous ARP forces the receiver of the ARP frame to update their forwarding table. The Active-backup mode transmits a gratuitous ARP to announce the new path to maintain connectivity for the host.

The primary option defines the preferred port of the bonding interface.

Balance-xor uses the selected transmit hash policy to send the packets. This mode provides load balancing, fault tolerance, and requires switch configuration to set up an Etherchannel or similar port grouping.

To alter packet transmission and balance transmit, this mode uses the xmit_hash_policy option. Depending on the source or destination of traffic on the interface, the interface requires an additional load-balancing configuration. See description xmit_hash_policy bonding parameter .

Broadcast uses a policy that transmits every packet on all interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance and requires a switch configuration to set up an EtherChannel or similar port grouping.

802.3ad uses the same-named IEEE standard dynamic link aggregation policy. This mode provides fault tolerance. This mode requires switch configuration to set up a Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) port grouping.

This mode creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings and utilizes all ports in the active aggregator. Depending on the source or destination of traffic on the interface, this mode requires an additional load-balancing configuration.

By default, the port selection for outgoing traffic depends on the transmit hash policy. Use the xmit_hash_policy option of the transmit hash policy to change the port selection and balance transmit.

The difference between the 802.3ad and the Balance-xor is compliance. The 802.3ad policy negotiates LACP between the port aggregation groups. See description xmit_hash_policy bonding parameter

Balance-tlb uses the transmit load balancing policy. This mode provides fault tolerance, load balancing, and establishes channel bonding that does not require any switch support.

The active port receives the incoming traffic. In case of failure of the active port, another one takes over the MAC address of the failed port. To decide which interface processes the outgoing traffic, use one of the following modes:

• Value 0 : Uses the hash distribution policy to distribute traffic without load balancing

Value 1 : Distributes traffic to each port by using load balancing

With the bonding option tlb_dynamic_lb=0 , this bonding mode uses the xmit_hash_policy bonding option to balance transmit. The primary option defines the preferred port of the bonding interface.

See description xmit_hash_policy bonding parameter .

Balance-alb uses an adaptive load balancing policy. This mode provides fault tolerance, load balancing, and does not require any special switch support.

This mode Includes balance-transmit load balancing ( balance-tlb ) and receive-load balancing for IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. The bonding intercepts ARP replies sent by the local system and overwrites the source hardware address of one of the ports in the bond. ARP negotiation manages the receive-load balancing. Therefore, different ports use different hardware addresses for the server.

The primary option defines the preferred port of the bonding interface. With the bonding option tlb_dynamic_lb=0 , this bonding mode uses the xmit_hash_policy bonding option to balance transmit. See description xmit_hash_policy bonding parameter .

• /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-< version >/Documentation/networking/bonding.rst provided by the kernel-doc package
• /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-< version >/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt provided by the kernel-doc package
• Which bonding modes work when used with a bridge that virtual machine guests or containers connect to?
• How are the values for different policies in "xmit_hash_policy" bonding parameter calculated?

3.11. The xmit_hash_policy bonding parameter

The xmit_hash_policy load balancing parameter selects the transmit hash policy for a node selection in the balance-xor , 802.3ad , balance-alb , and balance-tlb modes. It is only applicable to mode 5 and 6 if the tlb_dynamic_lb parameter is 0 . The possible values of this parameter are layer2 , layer2+3 , layer3+4 , encap2+3 , encap3+4 , and vlan+srcmac .

Refer the table for details:

Chapter 4. Configuring network teaming

A network team is a method to combine or aggregate physical and virtual network interfaces to provide a logical interface with higher throughput or redundancy. Network teaming uses a small kernel module to implement fast handling of packet flows and a user-space service for other tasks. This way, network teaming is an easily extensible and scalable solution for load-balancing and redundancy requirements.

• Use nmcli to configure teams connections using the command line.
• Use the RHEL web console to configure team connections using a web browser.
• Use the nm-connection-editor application to configure team connections in a graphical interface.

Network teaming is deprecated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. Consider using the network bonding driver as an alternative. For details, see Configuring network bonding .

4.1. Migrating a network team configuration to network bond

Network teaming is deprecated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. If you already have a working network team configured, for example because you upgraded from an earlier RHEL version, you can migrate the configuration to a network bond that is managed by NetworkManager.

The team2bond utility only converts the network team configuration to a bond. Afterwards, you must manually configure further settings of the bond, such as IP addresses and DNS configuration.

• The team-team0 NetworkManager connection profile is configured and manages the team0 device.
• The teamd package is installed.

Optional: Display the IP configuration of the team-team0 NetworkManager connection:

Export the configuration of the team0 device to a JSON file:

Remove the network team. For example, if you configured the team in NetworkManager, remove the team-team0 connection profile and the profiles of associated ports:

Run the team2bond utility in dry-run mode to display nmcli commands that set up a network bond with similar settings as the team device:

The first command contains two miimon options because the team configuration file contained two link_watch entries. Note that this does not affect the creation of the bond.

If you bound services to the device name of the team and want to avoid updating or breaking these services, omit the --rename=bond0 option. In this case, team2bond uses the same interface name for the bond as for the team.

• Verify that the options for the bond the team2bond utility suggested are correct.

Create the bond. You can execute the suggested nmcli commands or re-run the team2bond command with the --exec-cmd option:

You require the name of the bond connection profile ( bond-bond0 ) in the next steps.

Set the IPv4 settings that were previously configured on team-team0 to the bond-bond0 connection:

Set the IPv6 settings that were previously configured on team-team0 to the bond-bond0 connection:

Display the IP configuration of the bond-bond0 NetworkManager connection:

In this example, both ports are up.

To verify that bonding failover works:

• Temporarily remove the network cable from the host. Note that there is no method to properly test link failure events using the command line.

4.2. Understanding the default behavior of controller and port interfaces

4.3. understanding the teamd service, runners, and link-watchers.

The team service, teamd , controls one instance of the team driver. This instance of the driver adds instances of a hardware device driver to form a team of network interfaces. The team driver presents a network interface, for example team0 , to the kernel.

The teamd service implements the common logic to all methods of teaming. Those functions are unique to the different load sharing and backup methods, such as round-robin, and implemented by separate units of code referred to as runners . Administrators specify runners in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, and the JSON code is compiled into an instance of teamd when the instance is created. Alternatively, when using NetworkManager , you can set the runner in the team.runner parameter, and NetworkManager auto-creates the corresponding JSON code.

The following runners are available:

• broadcast : Transmits data over all ports.
• roundrobin : Transmits data over all ports in turn.
• activebackup : Transmits data over one port while the others are kept as a backup.
• loadbalance : Transmits data over all ports with active Tx load balancing and Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF)-based Tx port selectors.
• random : Transmits data on a randomly selected port.
• lacp : Implements the 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP).

The teamd services uses a link watcher to monitor the state of subordinate devices. The following link-watchers are available:

• ethtool : The libteam library uses the ethtool utility to watch for link state changes. This is the default link-watcher.
• arp_ping : The libteam library uses the arp_ping utility to monitor the presence of a far-end hardware address using Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).
• nsna_ping : On IPv6 connections, the libteam library uses the Neighbor Advertisement and Neighbor Solicitation features from the IPv6 Neighbor Discovery protocol to monitor the presence of a neighbor’s interface.

Each runner can use any link watcher, with the exception of lacp . This runner can only use the ethtool link watcher.

4.4. Configuring a network team by using nmcli

To configure a network team on the command line, use the nmcli utility.

• The teamd and NetworkManager-team packages are installed.
• To use Ethernet devices as ports of the team, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server and connected to a switch.

To use bond, bridge, or VLAN devices as ports of the team, you can either create these devices while you create the team or you can create them in advance as described in:

• Configuring a network bond by using nmcli

Create a team interface:

This command creates a network team named team0 that uses the activebackup runner.

Optionally, set a link watcher. For example, to set the ethtool link watcher in the team0 connection profile:

Link watchers support different parameters. To set parameters for a link watcher, specify them space-separated in the name property. Note that the name property must be surrounded by quotation marks. For example, to use the ethtool link watcher and set its delay-up parameter to 2500 milliseconds (2.5 seconds):

To set multiple link watchers and each of them with specific parameters, the link watchers must be separated by a comma. The following example sets the ethtool link watcher with the delay-up parameter and the arp_ping link watcher with the source-host and target-host parameter:

Display the network interfaces, and note the names of the interfaces you want to add to the team:

• enp7s0 and enp8s0 are not configured. To use these devices as ports, add connection profiles in the next step. Note that you can only use Ethernet interfaces in a team that are not assigned to any connection.
• bond0 and bond1 have existing connection profiles. To use these devices as ports, modify their profiles in the next step.

Assign the port interfaces to the team:

If the interfaces you want to assign to the team are not configured, create new connection profiles for them:

These commands create profiles for enp7s0 and enp8s0 , and add them to the team0 connection.

To assign an existing connection profile to the team:

Set the controller parameter of these connections to team0 :

These commands assign the existing connection profiles named bond0 and bond1 to the team0 connection.

To use this team device as a port of other devices, enter:

To set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the team0 connection, enter:

To set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the team0 connection, enter:

Display the status of the team:

• Understanding the teamd service, runners, and link-watchers
• teamd.conf(5) man page

4.5. Configuring a network team by using the RHEL web console

Use the RHEL web console to configure a network team if you prefer to manage network settings using a web browser-based interface.

To use bond, bridge, or VLAN devices as ports of the team, create them in advance as described in:

• Configuring a network bond by using the RHEL web console
• Click Add team in the Interfaces section.
• Enter the name of the team device you want to create.
• Select the interfaces that should be ports of the team.

Select the runner of the team.

If you select Load balancing or 802.3ad LACP , the web console shows the additional field Balancer .

Set the link watcher:

• If you select Ethtool , additionally, set a link up and link down delay.
• If you set ARP ping or NSNA ping , additionally, set a ping interval and ping target.

By default, the team uses a dynamic IP address. If you want to set a static IP address:

• Click the name of the team in the Interfaces section.

Select the Networking tab in the navigation on the left side of the screen, and check if there is incoming and outgoing traffic on the interface.

• Network team runners

4.6. Configuring a network team by using nm-connection-editor

If you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a graphical interface, you can configure network teams using the nm-connection-editor application.

Note that nm-connection-editor can add only new ports to a team. To use an existing connection profile as a port, create the team using the nmcli utility as described in Configuring a network team by using nmcli .

• To use Ethernet devices as ports of the team, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.
• To use team, bond, or VLAN devices as ports of the team, ensure that these devices are not already configured.
• Select the Team connection type, and click Create .

On the Team tab:

• Optional: Set the name of the team interface in the Interface name field.

Click the Add button to add a new connection profile for a network interface and adding the profile as a port to the team.

• If you create a connection profile for an Ethernet device, open the Ethernet tab, and select in the Device field the network interface you want to add as a port to the team. If you selected a different device type, configure it accordingly. Note that you can only use Ethernet interfaces in a team that are not assigned to any connection.

Repeat the previous step for each interface you want to add to the team.

Click the Advanced button to set advanced options to the team connection.

• On the Runner tab, select the runner.
• On the Link Watcher tab, set the link watcher and its optional settings.

• Configuring a network bond by using nm-connection-editor
• NetworkManager duplicates a connection after restart of NetworkManager service

Chapter 5. Configuring VLAN tagging

A Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) is a logical network within a physical network. The VLAN interface tags packets with the VLAN ID as they pass through the interface, and removes tags of returning packets. You create VLAN interfaces on top of another interface, such as Ethernet, bond, team, or bridge devices. These interfaces are called the parent interface .

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides administrators different options to configure VLAN devices. For example:

• Use nmcli to configure VLAN tagging using the command line.
• Use the RHEL web console to configure VLAN tagging using a web browser.
• Use nmtui to configure VLAN tagging in a text-based user interface.
• Use the nm-connection-editor application to configure connections in a graphical interface.
• Use RHEL system roles to automate the VLAN configuration on one or multiple hosts.

5.1. Configuring VLAN tagging by using nmcli

You can configure Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tagging on the command line using the nmcli utility.

• The interface you plan to use as a parent to the virtual VLAN interface supports VLAN tags.

If you configure the VLAN on top of a bond interface:

• The ports of the bond are up.
• The bond is not configured with the fail_over_mac=follow option. A VLAN virtual device cannot change its MAC address to match the parent’s new MAC address. In such a case, the traffic would still be sent with the incorrect source MAC address.
• The bond is usually not expected to get IP addresses from a DHCP server or IPv6 auto-configuration. Ensure it by setting the ipv4.method=disable and ipv6.method=ignore options while creating the bond. Otherwise, if DHCP or IPv6 auto-configuration fails after some time, the interface might be brought down.
• The switch, the host is connected to, is configured to support VLAN tags. For details, see the documentation of your switch.

Display the network interfaces:

Create the VLAN interface. For example, to create a VLAN interface named vlan10 that uses enp1s0 as its parent interface and that tags packets with VLAN ID 10 , enter:

Note that the VLAN must be within the range from 0 to 4094 .

By default, the VLAN connection inherits the maximum transmission unit (MTU) from the parent interface. Optionally, set a different MTU value:

To use this VLAN device as a port of other devices, enter:

To set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the vlan10 connection, enter:

To set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the vlan10 connection, enter:

Verify the settings:

5.2. Configuring nested VLANs by using nmcli

802.1ad is a protocol used for Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tagging. It is also known as Q-in-Q tagging. You can use this technology to create multiple VLAN tags within a single Ethernet frame to achieve the following benefits:

• Increased network scalability by creating multiple isolated network segments within a VLAN. This enables you to segment and organize large networks into smaller, manageable units.
• Improved traffic management by isolating and controlling different types of network traffic. This can improve the network performance and reduce network congestion.
• Efficient resource utilization by enabling the creation of smaller, more targeted network segments.
• Enhanced security by isolating network traffic and reducing the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Display the physical network devices:

Create the base VLAN interface. For example, to create a base VLAN interface named vlan10 that uses enp1s0 as its parent interface and that tags packets with VLAN ID 10 , enter:

Create the nested VLAN interface on top of the base VLAN interface:

This command creates a new VLAN connection with a name of vlan10.20 and a VLAN ID of 20 on the parent VLAN connection vlan10 . The dev option specifies the parent network device. In this case it is enp1s0.10 . The vlan.protocol option specifies the VLAN encapsulation protocol. In this case it is 802.1ad (Q-in-Q).

Configure the IPv4 settings of the nested VLAN interface:

To set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the vlan10.20 connection, enter:

Configure the IPv6 settings of the nested VLAN interface:

Verify the configuration of the nested VLAN interface:

5.3. Configuring VLAN tagging by using the RHEL web console

Use the RHEL web console to configure VLAN tagging if you prefer to manage network settings using a web browser-based interface.

• The bond is usually not expected to get IP addresses from a DHCP server or IPv6 auto-configuration. Ensure it by disabling the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol creating the bond. Otherwise, if DHCP or IPv6 auto-configuration fails after some time, the interface might be brought down.
• Click Add VLAN in the Interfaces section.
• Select the parent device.
• Enter the VLAN ID.

Enter the name of the VLAN device or keep the automatically-generated name.

By default, the VLAN device uses a dynamic IP address. If you want to set a static IP address:

• Click the name of the VLAN device in the Interfaces section.

5.4. Configuring VLAN tagging by using nmtui

The nmtui application provides a text-based user interface for NetworkManager. You can use nmtui to configure VLAN tagging on a host without a graphical interface.

• The bond is not configured with the fail_over_mac=follow option. A VLAN virtual device cannot change its MAC address to match the parent’s new MAC address. In such a case, the traffic would still be sent with the then incorrect source MAC address.
• The switch the host is connected to is configured to support VLAN tags. For details, see the documentation of your switch.

If you do not know the network device name on which you want configure VLAN tagging, display the available devices:

• Select VLAN from the list of network types, and press Enter .
• Enter the VLAN device name to be created into the Device field.
• Enter the name of the device on which you want to configure VLAN tagging into the Parent field.
• Enter the VLAN ID. The ID must be within the range from 0 to 4094 .
• Disabled , if this VLAN device does not require an IP address or you want to use it as a port of other devices.
• Automatic , if a DHCP server or stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC) dynamically assigns an IP address to the VLAN device.

Figure 5.1. Example of a VLAN connection with static IP address settings

5.5. Configuring VLAN tagging by using nm-connection-editor

You can configure Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tagging in a graphical interface using the nm-connection-editor application.

• The switch, the host is connected, to is configured to support VLAN tags. For details, see the documentation of your switch.
• Select the VLAN connection type, and click Create .

On the VLAN tab:

• Select the parent interface.
• Select the VLAN id. Note that the VLAN must be within the range from 0 to 4094 .
• By default, the VLAN connection inherits the maximum transmission unit (MTU) from the parent interface. Optionally, set a different MTU value.

Optionally, set the name of the VLAN interface and further VLAN-specific options.

5.6. Configuring VLAN tagging by using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure Virtual Local Area Network VLAN through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

Depending on your environment, adjust the YAML file accordingly. For example, to use different devices than Ethernet adapters in the VLAN, adapt the base-iface attribute and type attributes of the ports you use in the VLAN.

• To use Ethernet devices as ports in the VLAN, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-vlan.yml , with the following content:

These settings define a VLAN with ID 10 that uses the enp1s0 device. As the child device, the VLAN connection has the following settings:

5.7. Configuring VLAN tagging by using the network RHEL system role

You can use the network RHEL system role to configure VLAN tagging. This example adds an Ethernet connection and a VLAN with ID 10 on top of this Ethernet connection. As the child device, the VLAN connection contains the IP, default gateway, and DNS configurations.

Depending on your environment, adjust the play accordingly. For example:

• To use the VLAN as a port in other connections, such as a bond, omit the ip attribute, and set the IP configuration in the child configuration.
• To use team, bridge, or bond devices in the VLAN, adapt the interface_name and type attributes of the ports you use in the VLAN.

These settings define a VLAN to operate on top of the enp1s0 device. The VLAN interface has the following settings:

VLAN ID - 10

The parent attribute in the VLAN profile configures the VLAN to operate on top of the enp1s0 device. As the child device, the VLAN connection contains the IP, default gateway, and DNS configurations.

Chapter 6. Configuring a network bridge

A network bridge is a link-layer device which forwards traffic between networks based on a table of MAC addresses. The bridge builds the MAC addresses table by listening to network traffic and thereby learning what hosts are connected to each network. For example, you can use a software bridge on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux host to emulate a hardware bridge or in virtualization environments, to integrate virtual machines (VM) to the same network as the host.

A bridge requires a network device in each network the bridge should connect. When you configure a bridge, the bridge is called controller and the devices it uses ports .

You can create bridges on different types of devices, such as:

• Physical and virtual Ethernet devices
• Network bonds
• Network teams
• VLAN devices

Due to the IEEE 802.11 standard which specifies the use of 3-address frames in Wi-Fi for the efficient use of airtime, you cannot configure a bridge over Wi-Fi networks operating in Ad-Hoc or Infrastructure modes.

6.1. Configuring a network bridge by using nmcli

To configure a network bridge on the command line, use the nmcli utility.

• To use Ethernet devices as ports of the bridge, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.

To use team, bond, or VLAN devices as ports of the bridge, you can either create these devices while you create the bridge or you can create them in advance as described in:

Create a bridge interface:

This command creates a bridge named bridge0 , enter:

Display the network interfaces, and note the names of the interfaces you want to add to the bridge:

Assign the interfaces to the bridge.

If the interfaces you want to assign to the bridge are not configured, create new connection profiles for them:

These commands create profiles for enp7s0 and enp8s0 , and add them to the bridge0 connection.

If you want to assign an existing connection profile to the bridge:

Set the controller parameter of these connections to bridge0 :

These commands assign the existing connection profiles named bond0 and bond1 to the bridge0 connection.

To use this bridge device as a port of other devices, enter:

To set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the bridge0 connection, enter:

To set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the bridge0 connection, enter:

Optional: Configure further properties of the bridge. For example, to set the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) priority of bridge0 to 16384 , enter:

By default, STP is enabled.

When you activate any port of the connection, NetworkManager also activates the bridge, but not the other ports of it. You can configure that Red Hat Enterprise Linux enables all ports automatically when the bridge is enabled:

Enable the connection.autoconnect-ports parameter of the bridge connection:

Use the ip utility to display the link status of Ethernet devices that are ports of a specific bridge:

Use the bridge utility to display the status of Ethernet devices that are ports of any bridge device:

To display the status for a specific Ethernet device, use the bridge link show dev <ethernet_device_name> command.

• bridge(8) man page
• How to configure a bridge with VLAN information?

6.2. Configuring a network bridge by using the RHEL web console

Use the RHEL web console to configure a network bridge if you prefer to manage network settings using a web browser-based interface.

• Configuring a network team using the RHEL web console
• Click Add bridge in the Interfaces section.
• Enter the name of the bridge device you want to create.
• Select the interfaces that should be ports of the bridge.

Optional: Enable the Spanning tree protocol (STP) feature to avoid bridge loops and broadcast radiation.

By default, the bridge uses a dynamic IP address. If you want to set a static IP address:

• Click the name of the bridge in the Interfaces section.

6.3. Configuring a network bridge by using nmtui

The nmtui application provides a text-based user interface for NetworkManager. You can use nmtui to configure a network bridge on a host without a graphical interface.

If you do not know the network device names on which you want configure a network bridge, display the available devices:

• Select Bridge from the list of network types, and press Enter .
• Enter the bridge device name to be created into the Device field.

Add ports to the bridge to be created:

• Select the type of the interface you want to add as port to the bridge, for example, Ethernet .
• Optional: Enter a name for the NetworkManager profile to be created for this bridge port.

Press OK to return to the window with the bridge settings.

Figure 6.1. Adding an Ethernet device as port to a bridge

• Repeat these steps to add more ports to the bridge.
• Disabled , if the bridge does not require an IP address.
• Automatic , if a DHCP server or stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC) dynamically assigns an IP address to the bridge.

Figure 6.2. Example of a bridge connection without IP address settings

6.4. Configuring a network bridge by using nm-connection-editor

If you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a graphical interface, you can configure network bridges using the nm-connection-editor application.

Note that nm-connection-editor can add only new ports to a bridge. To use an existing connection profile as a port, create the bridge using the nmcli utility as described in Configuring a network bridge by using nmcli .

• To use team, bond, or VLAN devices as ports of the bridge, ensure that these devices are not already configured.
• Select the Bridge connection type, and click Create .

On the Bridge tab:

• Optional: Set the name of the bridge interface in the Interface name field.

Click the Add button to create a new connection profile for a network interface and adding the profile as a port to the bridge.

• Optionally, set a connection name for the port device.
• If you create a connection profile for an Ethernet device, open the Ethernet tab, and select in the Device field the network interface you want to add as a port to the bridge. If you selected a different device type, configure it accordingly.

Repeat the previous step for each interface you want to add to the bridge.

• Optional: Configure further bridge settings, such as Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) options.

Use the ip utility to display the link status of Ethernet devices that are ports of a specific bridge.

Use the bridge utility to display the status of Ethernet devices that are ports in any bridge device:

To display the status for a specific Ethernet device, use the bridge link show dev ethernet_device_name command.

6.5. Configuring a network bridge by using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure a network bridge through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

Depending on your environment, adjust the YAML file accordingly. For example, to use different devices than Ethernet adapters in the bridge, adapt the base-iface attribute and type attributes of the ports you use in the bridge.

• To use Ethernet devices as ports in the bridge, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices must be installed on the server.
• To use team, bond, or VLAN devices as ports in the bridge, set the interface name in the port list, and define the corresponding interfaces.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-bridge.yml , with the following content:

These settings define a network bridge with the following settings:

• Network interfaces in the bridge: enp1s0 and enp7s0
• Spanning Tree Protocol (STP): Enabled
• Static IPv4 address: 192.0.2.1 with the /24 subnet mask
• Static IPv6 address: 2001:db8:1::1 with the /64 subnet mask

6.6. Configuring a network bridge by using the network RHEL system role

You can remotely configure a network bridge by using the network RHEL system role.

Ports of the bridge - enp7s0 and enp8s0

Set the IP configuration on the bridge and not on the ports of the Linux bridge.

Chapter 7. Setting up an IPsec VPN

A virtual private network (VPN) is a way of connecting to a local network over the internet. IPsec provided by Libreswan is the preferred method for creating a VPN. Libreswan is a user-space IPsec implementation for VPN. A VPN enables the communication between your LAN, and another, remote LAN by setting up a tunnel across an intermediate network such as the internet. For security reasons, a VPN tunnel always uses authentication and encryption. For cryptographic operations, Libreswan uses the NSS library.

7.1. Configuring a VPN connection with control-center

If you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a graphical interface, you can configure a VPN connection in the GNOME control-center .

• The NetworkManager-libreswan-gnome package is installed.
• Press the Super key, type Settings , and press Enter to open the control-center application.
• Select the Network entry on the left.
• Click the + icon.
• Select VPN .

Select the Identity menu entry to see the basic configuration options:

Gateway — The name or IP address of the remote VPN gateway.

Authentication

• IKEv2 (Certificate) - client is authenticated by certificate. It is more secure (default).

IKEv1 (XAUTH) - client is authenticated by user name and password, or a pre-shared key (PSK).

The following configuration settings are available under the Advanced section:

Figure 7.1. Advanced options of a VPN connection

When configuring an IPsec-based VPN connection using the gnome-control-center application, the Advanced dialog displays the configuration, but it does not allow any changes. As a consequence, users cannot change any advanced IPsec options. Use the nm-connection-editor or nmcli tools instead to perform configuration of the advanced properties.

Identification

Domain — If required, enter the Domain Name.

• Phase1 Algorithms — corresponds to the ike Libreswan parameter — enter the algorithms to be used to authenticate and set up an encrypted channel.

Phase2 Algorithms — corresponds to the esp Libreswan parameter — enter the algorithms to be used for the IPsec negotiations.

Check the Disable PFS field to turn off Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) to ensure compatibility with old servers that do not support PFS.

• Phase1 Lifetime — corresponds to the ikelifetime Libreswan parameter — how long the key used to encrypt the traffic will be valid.

Phase2 Lifetime — corresponds to the salifetime Libreswan parameter — how long a particular instance of a connection should last before expiring.

Note that the encryption key should be changed from time to time for security reasons.

Remote network — corresponds to the rightsubnet Libreswan parameter — the destination private remote network that should be reached through the VPN.

Check the narrowing field to enable narrowing. Note that it is only effective in IKEv2 negotiation.

• Enable fragmentation — corresponds to the fragmentation Libreswan parameter — whether or not to allow IKE fragmentation. Valid values are yes (default) or no .
• Enable Mobike — corresponds to the mobike Libreswan parameter — whether to allow Mobility and Multihoming Protocol (MOBIKE, RFC 4555) to enable a connection to migrate its endpoint without needing to restart the connection from scratch. This is used on mobile devices that switch between wired, wireless, or mobile data connections. The values are no (default) or yes .

Select the IPv4 menu entry:

IPv4 Method

• Automatic (DHCP) — Choose this option if the network you are connecting to uses a DHCP server to assign dynamic IP addresses.
• Link-Local Only — Choose this option if the network you are connecting to does not have a DHCP server and you do not want to assign IP addresses manually. Random addresses will be assigned as per RFC 3927 with prefix 169.254/16 .
• Manual — Choose this option if you want to assign IP addresses manually.

Disable — IPv4 is disabled for this connection.

In the DNS section, when Automatic is ON , switch it to OFF to enter the IP address of a DNS server you want to use separating the IPs by comma.

Note that in the Routes section, when Automatic is ON , routes from DHCP are used, but you can also add additional static routes. When OFF , only static routes are used.

• Address — Enter the IP address of a remote network or host.
• Netmask — The netmask or prefix length of the IP address entered above.
• Gateway — The IP address of the gateway leading to the remote network or host entered above.

Metric — A network cost, a preference value to give to this route. Lower values will be preferred over higher values.

Use this connection only for resources on its network

Select this check box to prevent the connection from becoming the default route. Selecting this option means that only traffic specifically destined for routes learned automatically over the connection or entered here manually is routed over the connection.

To configure IPv6 settings in a VPN connection, select the IPv6 menu entry:

IPv6 Method

• Automatic — Choose this option to use IPv6 Stateless Address AutoConfiguration (SLAAC) to create an automatic, stateless configuration based on the hardware address and Router Advertisements (RA).
• Automatic, DHCP only — Choose this option to not use RA, but request information from DHCPv6 directly to create a stateful configuration.
• Link-Local Only — Choose this option if the network you are connecting to does not have a DHCP server and you do not want to assign IP addresses manually. Random addresses will be assigned as per RFC 4862 with prefix FE80::0 .

Disable — IPv6 is disabled for this connection.

Note that DNS , Routes , Use this connection only for resources on its network are common to IPv4 settings.

• Once you have finished editing the VPN connection, click the Add button to customize the configuration or the Apply button to save it for the existing one.
• Switch the profile to ON to active the VPN connection.
• nm-settings-libreswan(5)

7.2. Configuring a VPN connection using nm-connection-editor

If you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a graphical interface, you can configure a VPN connection in the nm-connection-editor application.

If you configure an Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) connection:

• The certificate is imported into the IPsec network security services (NSS) database.
• The nickname of the certificate in the NSS database is known.
• Select the IPsec based VPN connection type, and click Create .

On the VPN tab:

Enter the host name or IP address of the VPN gateway into the Gateway field, and select an authentication type. Based on the authentication type, you must enter different additional information:

• IKEv2 (Certifiate) authenticates the client by using a certificate, which is more secure. This setting requires the nickname of the certificate in the IPsec NSS database

IKEv1 (XAUTH) authenticates the user by using a user name and password (pre-shared key). This setting requires that you enter the following values:

If the remote server specifies a local identifier for the IKE exchange, enter the exact string in the Remote ID field. In the remote server runs Libreswan, this value is set in the server’s leftid parameter.

Optionally, configure additional settings by clicking the Advanced button. You can configure the following settings:

• Domain — If required, enter the domain name.
• Phase1 Algorithms corresponds to the ike Libreswan parameter. Enter the algorithms to be used to authenticate and set up an encrypted channel.

Phase2 Algorithms corresponds to the esp Libreswan parameter. Enter the algorithms to be used for the IPsec negotiations.

• Phase1 Lifetime corresponds to the ikelifetime Libreswan parameter. This parameter defines how long the key used to encrypt the traffic is valid.
• Phase2 Lifetime corresponds to the salifetime Libreswan parameter. This parameter defines how long a security association is valid.

Connectivity

Remote network corresponds to the rightsubnet Libreswan parameter and defines the destination private remote network that should be reached through the VPN.

Check the narrowing field to enable narrowing. Note that it is only effective in the IKEv2 negotiation.

• Enable fragmentation corresponds to the fragmentation Libreswan parameter and defines whether or not to allow IKE fragmentation. Valid values are yes (default) or no .
• Enable Mobike corresponds to the mobike Libreswan parameter. The parameter defines whether to allow Mobility and Multihoming Protocol (MOBIKE) (RFC 4555) to enable a connection to migrate its endpoint without needing to restart the connection from scratch. This is used on mobile devices that switch between wired, wireless or mobile data connections. The values are no (default) or yes .

On the IPv4 Settings tab, select the IP assignment method and, optionally, set additional static addresses, DNS servers, search domains, and routes.

• Save the connection.

When you add a new connection by clicking the + button, NetworkManager creates a new configuration file for that connection and then opens the same dialog that is used for editing an existing connection. The difference between these dialogs is that an existing connection profile has a Details menu entry.

• nm-settings-libreswan(5) man page

7.3. Configuring automatic detection and usage of ESP hardware offload to accelerate an IPsec connection

Offloading Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) to the hardware accelerates IPsec connections over Ethernet. By default, Libreswan detects if hardware supports this feature and, as a result, enables ESP hardware offload. In case that the feature was disabled or explicitly enabled, you can switch back to automatic detection.

• The network card supports ESP hardware offload.
• The network driver supports ESP hardware offload.
• The IPsec connection is configured and works.
• Edit the Libreswan configuration file in the /etc/ipsec.d/ directory of the connection that should use automatic detection of ESP hardware offload support.
• Ensure the nic-offload parameter is not set in the connection’s settings.

If you removed nic-offload , restart the ipsec service:

If the network card supports ESP hardware offload support, following these steps to verify the result:

Display the tx_ipsec and rx_ipsec counters of the Ethernet device the IPsec connection uses:

Send traffic through the IPsec tunnel. For example, ping a remote IP address:

Display the tx_ipsec and rx_ipsec counters of the Ethernet device again:

If the counter values have increased, ESP hardware offload works.

• Configuring a VPN with IPsec

7.4. Configuring ESP hardware offload on a bond to accelerate an IPsec connection

Offloading Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) to the hardware accelerates IPsec connections. If you use a network bond for fail-over reasons, the requirements and the procedure to configure ESP hardware offload are different from those using a regular Ethernet device. For example, in this scenario, you enable the offload support on the bond, and the kernel applies the settings to the ports of the bond.

• All network cards in the bond support ESP hardware offload.
• The network driver supports ESP hardware offload on a bond device. In RHEL, only the ixgbe driver supports this feature.
• The bond is configured and works.
• The bond uses the active-backup mode. The bonding driver does not support any other modes for this feature.

Enable ESP hardware offload support on the network bond:

This command enables ESP hardware offload support on the bond0 connection.

Reactivate the bond0 connection:

Edit the Libreswan configuration file in the /etc/ipsec.d/ directory of the connection that should use ESP hardware offload, and append the nic-offload=yes statement to the connection entry:

Restart the ipsec service:

Display the active port of the bond:

Display the tx_ipsec and rx_ipsec counters of the active port:

Display the tx_ipsec and rx_ipsec counters of the active port again:

• Configuring a VPN with IPsec section in the Securing networks document

7.5. Configuring an IPsec based VPN connection by using nmstatectl

IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) is a security protocol suite, provided by Libreswan , for implementation of VPN. IPsec includes protocols to initiate authentication at the time of connection establishment and manage keys during the data transfer. When an application deploys in a network and communicates by using the IP protocol, IPsec can protect data communication.

To manage an IPsec-based configuration for authenticating VPN connections, you can use the nmstatectl utility. This utility provides command line access to a declarative API for host network management. The following are the authentication types for the host-to-subnet and host-to-host communication modes:

• Host-to-subnet PKI authentication
• Host-to-subnet RSA authentication
• Host-to-subnet PSK authentication
• Host-to-host tunnel mode authentication
• Host-to-host transport mode authentication

7.5.1. Configuring a host-to-subnet IPSec VPN with PKI authentication and tunnel mode by using nmstatectl

If you want to use encryption based on the trusted entity authentication in IPsec, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provides secure communication by using cryptographic keys between two hosts. Both communicating hosts generate private and public keys where each host maintains a private key by sharing public key with the trusted entity Certificate Authority (CA). The CA generates a digital certificate after verifying the authenticity. In case of encryption and decryption, the host uses a private key for encryption and public key for decryption.

By using Nmstate, a declarative API for network management, you can configure a PKI authentication-based IPsec connection. After setting the configuration, the Nmstate API ensures that the result matches with the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstate automatically rolls back the changes to avoid an incorrect state of the system.

To establish encrypted communication in host-to-subnet configuration, remote IPsec end provides another IP to host by using parameter dhcp: true . In the case of defining systems for IPsec in nmstate, the left -named system is the local host while the right -named system is the remote host. The following procedure needs to run on both hosts.

• By using a password, you have generated a PKCS #12 file that stores certificates and cryptographic keys.

Install the required packages:

Restart the NetworkManager service:

As Libreswan was already installed, remove its old database files and re-create them:

Enable and start the ipsec service:

Import the PKCS#12 file:

When importing the PKCS#12 file, enter the password that was used to create the file.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-pki-authentication.yml , with the following content:

The YAML file defines the following settings:

Apply settings to the system:

Verify IPsec status:

Verify IPsec policies:

• ipsec.conf(5) man page

7.5.2. Configuring a host-to-subnet IPSec VPN with RSA authentication and tunnel mode by using nmstatectl

If you want to use asymmetric cryptography-based key authentication in IPsec, the RSA algorithm provides secure communication by using either of private and public keys for encryption and decryption between two hosts. This method uses a private key for encryption, and a public key for decryption.

By using Nmstate, a declarative API for network management, you can configure RSA-based IPsec authentication. After setting the configuration, the Nmstate API ensures that the result matches with the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstate automatically rolls back the changes to avoid an incorrect state of the system.

If Libreswan was already installed, remove its old database files and re-create them:

Generate a RSA key pair on each host:

Display the public keys:

The previous step returned the generated key ckaid . Use that ckaid with the following command on left, for example:

The output of the previous command generated the leftrsasigkey= line required for the configuration. Do the same on the second host (right):

Enable the ipsec service to automatically start it on boot:

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-rsa-authentication.yml , with the following content:

Display the IP settings of the network interface:

7.5.3. Configuring a host-to-subnet IPSec VPN with PSK authentication and tunnel mode by using nmstatectl

If you want to use encryption based on mutual authentication in IPsec, the Pre-Shared Key (PSK) method provides secure communication by using a secret key between two hosts. A file stores the secret key and the same key encrypts the data flowing through the tunnel.

By using Nmstate, a declarative API for network management, you can configure PSK-based IPsec authentication. After setting the configuration, the Nmstate API ensures that the result matches with the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstate automatically rolls back the changes to avoid incorrect state of the system.

As this method uses static strings for authentication and encryption, use it only for testing/development purposes.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-pks-authentication.yml , with the following content:

Display the IP settings of network interface:

7.5.4. Configuring a host-to-host IPsec VPN with PKI authentication and tunnel mode by using nmstatectl

IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) is a security protocol suite to authenticate and encrypt IP communications within networks and devices. The Libreswan software provides an IPsec implementation for VPNs.

In tunnel mode, the source and destination IP address of communication is encrypted in the IPsec tunnel. External network sniffers can only get left IP and right IP. In general, for tunnel mode, it supports host-to-host , host-to-subnet , and subnet-to-subnet . In this mode, a new IP packet encapsulates an existing packet along with its payload and header. Encapsulation in this mode protects IP data, source, and destination headers over an unsecure network. This mode is useful to transfer data in subnet-to-subnet , remote access connections, and untrusted networks, such as open public Wi-Fi networks. By default, IPsec establishes a secure channel between two sites in tunnel mode. With the following configuration, you can establish a VPN connection as a host-to-host architecture.

By using Nmstate, a declarative API for network management, you can configure an IPsec VPN connection. After setting the configuration, the Nmstate API ensures that the result matches with the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstate automatically rolls back the changes to avoid incorrect state of the system.

In host-to-host configuration, you need to set leftmodecfgclient: no so that it can’t receive network configuration from the server, hence the value no . In the case of defining systems for IPsec in nmstate, the left -named system is the local host while the right -named system is the remote host. The following procedure needs to run on both hosts.

When importing the PKCS#12 file, enter the password that was used to generate the file.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-p2p-vpn-authentication.yml , with the following content:

Display the created P2P policy:

7.5.5. Configuring a host-to-host IPsec VPN with PSK authentication and transport mode by using nmstatectl

IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) is a security protocol suite to authenticate and encrypt IP communications within networks and devices. The Libreswan utility provides IPsec based implementation for VPN.

In transport mode, encryption works only for the payload of an IP packet. Also, a new IPsec header gets appended to the IP packet by keeping the original IP header as it is. Transport mode does not encrypt the source and destination IP of communication but copies them to an external IP header. Hence, encryption protects only IP data across the network. This mode is useful to transfer data in a host-to-host connection of a network. This mode is often used along with the GRE tunnel to save 20 bytes (IP header) of overheads. By default, the IPsec utility uses tunnel mode. To use transfer mode, set type: transport for host-to-host connection data transfer.

By using Nmstate, a declarative API for network management, you can configure an IPsec VPN connection. After setting the configuration, the Nmstate API ensures that the result matches with the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstate automatically rolls back the changes to avoid incorrect state of the system. To override the default tunnel mode, specify transport mode.

In the case of defining systems for IPsec in nmstate, the left -named system is the local host while the right -named system is the remote host. The following procedure needs to run on both hosts.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/create-p2p-transport-authentication.yml , with the following content:

Chapter 8. Setting up a WireGuard VPN

WireGuard is a high-performance VPN solution that runs in the Linux kernel. It uses modern cryptography and is easier to configure than many other VPN solutions. Additionally, WireGuard’s small codebase reduces the surface for attacks and, therefore, improves security. For authentication and encryption, WireGuard uses keys similar to SSH.

WireGuard is provided as a Technology Preview only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production Service Level Agreements (SLAs), might not be functionally complete, and Red Hat does not recommend using them for production. These previews provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

See Technology Preview Features Support Scope on the Red Hat Customer Portal for information about the support scope for Technology Preview features.

Note that all hosts that participate in a WireGuard VPN are peers. This documentation uses the terms client to describe hosts that establish a connection and server to describe the host with the fixed hostname or IP address that the clients connect to and optionally route all traffic through this server.

To set up a WireGuard VPN, you must complete the following steps. You can perform most steps by using different options:

• Create public and private keys for every host in the VPN .
• Configure the WireGuard server by using nmcli , nmtui , the RHEL web console , nm-connection-editor , or the wg-quick service.
• Configure firewalld on the WireGuard server by using the command line , the RHEL web console , or graphical interface .
• Configure the WireGuard client by using nmcli , nmtui , the RHEL web console , nm-connection-editor , or the wg-quick service.

WireGuard operates on the network layer (layer 3). Therefore, you cannot use DHCP and must assign static IP addresses or IPv6 link-local addresses to the tunnel devices on both the server and clients.

You can use WireGuard only if the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode in RHEL is disabled.

8.1. Protocols and primitives used by WireGuard

WireGuard uses the following protocols and primitives:

• ChaCha20 for symmetric encryption, authenticated with Poly1305, using Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) construction as described in RFC7539
• Curve25519 for Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) key exchange
• BLAKE2s for hashing and keyed hashing, as described in RFC7693
• SipHash24 for hash table keys
• HKDF for key derivation, as described in RFC5869

8.2. How WireGuard uses tunnel IP addresses, public keys, and remote endpoints

When WireGuard sends a network packet to a peer:

• WireGuard reads the destination IP from the packet and compares it to the list of allowed IP addresses in the local configuration. If the peer is not found, WireGuard drops the packet.
• If the peer is valid, WireGuard encrypts the packet using the peer’s public key.
• The sending host looks up the most recent Internet IP address of the host and sends the encrypted packet to it.

When WireGuard receives a packet:

• WireGuard decrypts the packet using the private key of the remote host.
• WireGuard reads the internal source address from the packet and looks up whether the IP is configured in the list of allowed IP addresses in the settings for the peer on the local host. If the source IP is on the allowlist, WireGuard accepts the packet. If the IP address is not on the list, WireGuard drops the packet.

The association of public keys and allowed IP addresses is called Cryptokey Routing Table . This means that the list of IP addresses behaves similar to a routing table when sending packets, and as a kind of access control list when receiving packets.

8.3. Using a WireGuard client behind NAT and firewalls

WireGuard uses the UDP protocol and transmits data only when a peer sends packets. Stateful firewalls and network address translation (NAT) on routers track connections to enable a peer behind NAT or a firewall to receive packets.

To keep the connection active, WireGuard supports persistent keepalives . This means you can set an interval at which WireGuard sends keepalive packets. By default, the persistent keep-alive feature is disabled to reduce network traffic. Enable this feature on the client if you use the client in a network with NAT or if a firewall closes the connection after some time of inactivity.

Note that you cannot configure keepalive packets in WireGuard connections by using the RHEL web console. To configure this feature, edit the connection profile by using the nmcli utility.

8.4. Creating private and public keys to be used in WireGuard connections

WireGuard uses base64-encoded private and public keys to authenticate hosts to each other. Therefore, you must create the keys on each host that participates in the WireGuard VPN.

For secure connections, create different keys for each host, and ensure that you only share the public key with the remote WireGuard host. Do not use the example keys used in this documentation.

If you plan to use the RHEL web console to create a WireGuard VPN connection, you can, alternatively, generate the public and private key pairs in the web console.

Install the wireguard-tools package:

Create a private key and a corresponding public key for the host:

You will need the content of the key files, but not the files themselves. However, Red Hat recommends keeping the files in case that you need to remember the keys in future.

Set secure permissions on the key files:

Display the private key:

You will need the private key to configure the WireGuard connection on the local host. Do not share the private key.

Display the public key:

You will need the public key to configure the WireGuard connection on the remote host.

• The wg(8) man page

8.5. Configuring a WireGuard server by using nmcli

You can configure the WireGuard server by creating a connection profile in NetworkManager. Use this method to let NetworkManager manage the WireGuard connection.

This procedure assumes the following settings:

• Private key: YFAnE0psgIdiAF7XR4abxiwVRnlMfeltxu10s/c4JXg=
• Tunnel IPv4 address: 192.0.2.1/24
• Tunnel IPv6 address: 2001:db8:1::1/32
• Public key: bnwfQcC8/g2i4vvEqcRUM2e6Hi3Nskk6G9t4r26nFVM=
• Tunnel IPv4 address: 192.0.2.2/24
• Tunnel IPv6 address: 2001:db8:1::2/32
• You have generated the public and private key for both the server and client.

You know the following information:

• The private key of the server
• The static tunnel IP addresses and subnet masks of the client
• The public key of the client
• The static tunnel IP addresses and subnet masks of the server

Add a NetworkManager WireGuard connection profile:

This command creates a profile named server-wg0 and assigns the virtual interface wg0 to it. To prevent the connection from starting automatically after you add it without finalizing the configuration, disable the autoconnect parameter.

Set the tunnel IPv4 address and subnet mask of the server:

Set the tunnel IPv6 address and subnet mask of the server:

Add the server’s private key to the connection profile:

Set the port for incoming WireGuard connections:

Always set a fixed port number on hosts that receive incoming WireGuard connections. If you do not set a port, WireGuard uses a random free port each time you activate the wg0 interface.

Add peer configurations for each client that you want to allow to communicate with this server. You must add these settings manually, because the nmcli utility does not support setting the corresponding connection properties.

Edit the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ server-wg0 .nmconnection file, and append:

• The [wireguard-peer. <public_key_of_the_client >] entry defines the peer section of the client, and the section name contains the public key of the client.

The allowed-ips parameter sets the tunnel IP addresses of the client that are allowed to send data to this server.

Add a section for each client.

Reload the server-wg0 connection profile:

Optional: Configure the connection to start automatically, enter:

Reactivate the server-wg0 connection:

• Configure the firewalld service on the WireGuard server .

Display the interface configuration of the wg0 device:

To display the private key in the output, use the WG_HIDE_KEYS=never wg show wg0 command.

Display the IP configuration of the wg0 device:

• The WireGuard setting section in the nm-settings(5) man page

8.6. Configuring a WireGuard server by using nmtui

• You installed the NetworkManager-tui package.

Start the nmtui application:

• Select Add , and press Enter .
• Select the WireGuard connection type in the list, and press Enter .

In the Edit connection window:

• Enter the name of the connection and the virtual interface, such as wg0 , that NetworkManager should assign to the connection.
• Enter the private key of the server.

Set the listen port number, such as 51820 , for incoming WireGuard connections.

Always set a fixed port number on hosts that receive incoming WireGuard connections. If you do not set a port, WireGuard uses a random free port each time you activate the interface.

Click Add next to the Peers pane:

• Enter the public key of the client.
• Set the Allowed IPs field to the tunnel IP addresses of the client that are allowed to send data to this server.

Select OK , and press Enter .

Select Show next to IPv4 Configuration , and press Enter .

• Select the IPv4 configuration method Manual .
• Enter the tunnel IPv4 address and the subnet mask. Leave the Gateway field empty.

Select Show next to IPv6 Configuration , and press Enter .

• Select the IPv6 configuration method Manual .
• Enter the tunnel IPv6 address and the subnet mask. Leave the Gateway field empty.

Select OK , and press Enter

• In the window with the list of connections, select Back , and press Enter .
• In the NetworkManager TUI main window, select Quit , and press Enter .

8.7. Configuring a WireGuard server by using the RHEL web console

You can configure a WireGuard server by using the browser-based RHEL web console. Use this method to let NetworkManager manage the WireGuard connection.

• The static tunnel IP addresses and subnet masks of both the server and client
• Click Add VPN in the Interfaces section.
• If the wireguard-tools and systemd-resolved packages are not already installed, the web console displays a corresponding notification. Click Install to install these packages.
• Enter the name of the WireGuard device that you want to create.

Configure the key pair of this host:

If you want use the keys that the web console has created:

• Keep the pre-selected Generated option in the Private key area.
• Note the Public key value. You require this information when you configure the client.

If you want to use an existing private key:

• Select Paste existing key in the Private key area.
• Paste the private key into the text field. The web console automatically calculates the corresponding public key.

Set a listen port number, such as 51820 , for incoming WireGuard connections.

Set the tunnel IPv4 address and subnet mask of the server.

To also set an IPv6 address, you must edit the connection after you have created it.

Add peer configurations for each client that you want to allow to communicate with this server:

• Click Add peer .
• Leave the Endpoint field empty.
• Set the Allowed IPs field to the tunnel IP addresses of the clients that are allowed to send data to this server.

• Click Add to create the WireGuard connection.

If you want to also set a tunnel IPv6 address:

• Click on the WireGuard connection’s name in the Interfaces section.
• Click edit next to IPv6 .
• Set the Addresses field to Manual , and enter the tunnel IPv6 address and prefix of the server.

8.8. Configuring a WireGuard server by using nm-connection-editor

• Add a new connection by clicking the + button.
• Select the WireGuard connection type, and click Create .
• Optional: Update the connection name.
• On the General tab, select Connect automatically with priority . Optionally, set a priority value.

On the WireGuard tab:

• Enter the name of the virtual interface, such as wg0 , that NetworkManager should assign to the connection.

Click Add to add peers:

On the IPv4 Settings tab:

• Select Manual in the Method list.
• Click Add to enter the tunnel IPv4 address and the subnet mask. Leave the Gateway field empty.

On the IPv6 Settings tab:

• Click Add to enter the tunnel IPv6 address and the subnet mask. Leave the Gateway field empty.
• Click Save to store the connection profile.

8.9. Configuring a WireGuard server by using the wg-quick service

You can configure the WireGuard server by creating a configuration file in the /etc/wireguard/ directory. Use this method to configure the service independently from NetworkManager.

Create the /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf file with the following content:

The [Interface] section describes the WireGuard settings of the interface on the server:

• Address : A comma-separated list of the server’s tunnel IP addresses.
• PrivateKey : The private key of the server.

ListenPort : The port on which WireGuard listens for incoming UDP connections.

Each [Peer] section describes the settings of one client:

• PublicKey : The public key of the client.
• AllowedIPs : The tunnel IP addresses of the client that are allowed to send data to this server.

Enable and start the WireGuard connection:

The systemd instance name must match the name of the configuration file in the /etc/wireguard/ directory without the .conf suffix. The service also uses this name for the virtual network interface.

• The wg-quick(8) man page

8.10. Configuring firewalld on a WireGuard server by using the command line

You must configure the firewalld service on the WireGuard server to allow incoming connections from clients. Additionally, if clients should be able to use the WireGuard server as the default gateway and route all traffic through the tunnel, you must enable masquerading.

Open the WireGuard port for incoming connections in the firewalld service:

If clients should route all traffic through the tunnel and use the WireGuard server as the default gateway, enable masquerading for the public zone:

Reload the firewalld rules.

Display the configuration of the public zone:

• The firewall-cmd(1) man page

8.11. Configuring firewalld on a WireGuard server by using the RHEL web console

• Click Edit rules and zones in the Firewall section.
• Enter wireguard into the Filter services field.

Select the wireguard entry from the list.

• Click Add services .

Note that you cannot enable masquerading in firewalld zones in the web console.

• The list contains an entry for the wireguard service and displays the UDP port that you configured in the WireGuard connection profile.

To verify that masquerading is enabled in the firewalld public zone, enter:

8.12. Configuring firewalld on a WireGuard server by using the graphical interface

• Press the Super key, enter firewall , and select the Firewall application from the results.
• Select Permanent in the Configuration list.
• Select the public zone.

Allow incoming connections to the WireGuard port:

• On the Ports tab, click Add .
• Enter the port number you set for incoming WireGuard connections:
• Select udp from the Protocol list.

If clients should route all traffic through the tunnel and use the WireGuard server as the default gateway:

• Navigate to the Masquerading tab of the public zone.
• Select Masquerade zone .
• Select Options → Reload Firewalld .

8.13. Configuring a WireGuard client by using nmcli

You can configure a WireGuard client by creating a connection profile in NetworkManager. Use this method to let NetworkManager manage the WireGuard connection.

• Private key: aPUcp5vHz8yMLrzk8SsDyYnV33IhE/k20e52iKJFV0A=
• Public key: UtjqCJ57DeAscYKRfp7cFGiQqdONRn69u249Fa4O6BE=
• The private key of the client
• The public key of the server

This command creates a profile named client-wg0 and assigns the virtual interface wg0 to it. To prevent the connection from starting automatically after you add it without finalizing the configuration, disable the autoconnect parameter.

Optional: Configure NetworkManager so that it does not automatically start the client-wg connection:

Set the tunnel IPv4 address and subnet mask of the client:

Set the tunnel IPv6 address and subnet mask of the client:

If you want to route all traffic through the tunnel, set the tunnel IP addresses of the server as the default gateway:

Routing all traffic through the tunnel requires that you set, in a later step, the allowed-ips on the this client to 0.0.0.0/0;::/0 .

Note that routing all traffic through the tunnel can impact the connectivity to other hosts based on the server routing and firewall configuration.

Add the client’s private key to the connection profile:

Add peer configurations for each server that you want to allow to communicate with this client. You must add these settings manually, because the nmcli utility does not support setting the corresponding connection properties.

Edit the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ client-wg0 .nmconnection file, and append:

• The [wireguard-peer. <public_key_of_the_server >] entry defines the peer section of the server, and the section name has the public key of the server.
• The endpoint parameter sets the hostname or IP address and the port of the server. The client uses this information to establish the connection.

The allowed-ips parameter sets a list of IP addresses that can send data to this client. For example, set the parameter to:

• The tunnel IP addresses of the server to allow only the server to communicate with this client. The value in the example above configures this scenario.

0.0.0.0/0;::/0; to allow any remote IPv4 and IPv6 address to communicate with this client. Use this setting to route all traffic through the tunnel and use the WireGuard server as default gateway.

• The optional persistent-keepalive parameter defines an interval in seconds in which WireGuard sends a keep alive packet to the server. Set this parameter if you use the client in a network with network address translation (NAT) or if a firewall closes the UDP connection after some time of inactivity.

Reload the client-wg0 connection profile:

Reactivate the client-wg0 connection:

Ping the IP addresses of the server:

Note that the output has only the latest handshake and transfer entries if you have already sent traffic through the VPN tunnel.

8.14. Configuring a WireGuard client by using nmtui

• You installed the NetworkManager-tui package

Enter the private key of the client.

• Enter the public key of the server.

Set the Allowed IPs field. For example, set it to:

• The tunnel IP addresses of the server to allow only the server to communicate with this client.
• 0.0.0.0/0,::/0 to allow any remote IPv4 and IPv6 address to communicate with this client. Use this setting to route all traffic through the tunnel and use the WireGuard server as default gateway.
• Enter the host name or IP address and port of the WireGuard server into the Endpoint field. Use the following format: hostname_or_IP : port_number
• Optional: If you use the client in a network with network address translation (NAT) or if a firewall closes the UDP connection after some time of inactivity, set a persistent keep alive interval in seconds. In this interval, the client sends a keepalive packet to the server.

• Optional: Select Automatically connect .

Note that the output contains only the latest handshake and transfer entries if you have already sent traffic through the VPN tunnel.

8.15. Configuring a WireGuard client by using the RHEL web console

You can configure a WireGuard client by using the browser-based RHEL web console. Use this method to let NetworkManager manage the WireGuard connection.

• Preserve the 0 value in the Listen port field.

Set the tunnel IPv4 address and subnet mask of the client.

Add a peer configuration for the server that you want to allow to communicate with this client:

• Set the Endpoint field to the hostname or IP address and the port of the server, for example server.example.com:51820 . The client uses this information to establish the connection.

Set the Allowed IPs field to the tunnel IP addresses of the clients that are allowed to send data to this server. For example, set the field to one of the following:

• The tunnel IP addresses of the server to allow only the server to communicate with this client. The value in the screen capture below configures this scenario.
• 0.0.0.0/0 to allow any remote IPv4 address to communicate with this client. Use this setting to route all traffic through the tunnel and use the WireGuard server as default gateway.

• Set the Addresses field to Manual , and enter the tunnel IPv6 address and prefix of the client.

WireGuard establishes the connection when you try to send traffic through the tunnel.

8.16. Configuring a WireGuard client by using nm-connection-editor

• Optional: On the General tab, select Connect automatically with priority .
• Enter client’s private key.
• Enter the hostname or IP address and port of the WireGuard server into the Endpoint field. Use the following format: hostname_or_IP : port_number
• Optional: If you use the client in a network with network address translation (NAT) or if a firewall closes the UDP connection after some time of inactivity, set a persistent keep alive interval in seconds. In this interval, the client sends a keep alive packet to the server.
• Click Add to enter the tunnel IPv4 address and the subnet mask.

If you want to route all traffic through the tunnel, set the tunnel IPv4 address of the server in the Gateway field. Otherwise, leave the field empty.

Routing all IPv4 traffic through the tunnel requires that you included 0.0.0.0/0 in the Allowed IPs field on this client.

• Click Add to enter the tunnel IPv6 address and the subnet mask.

If you want to route all traffic through the tunnel, set the tunnel IPv6 address of the server in the Gateway field. Otherwise, leave the field empty.

Routing all IPv4 traffic through the tunnel requires that you included ::/0 in the Allowed IPs field on this client.

Note that the output only has the latest handshake and transfer entries if you have already sent traffic through the VPN tunnel.

8.17. Configuring a WireGuard client by using the wg-quick service

You can configure a WireGuard client by creating a configuration file in the /etc/wireguard/ directory. Use this method to configure the service independently from NetworkManager.

The [Interface] section describes the WireGuard settings of the interface on the client:

• Address : A comma-separated list of the client’s tunnel IP addresses.
• PrivateKey : The private key of the client.

The [Peer] section describes the settings of the server:

• PublicKey : The public key of the server.

AllowedIPs : The IP addresses that are allowed to send data to this client. For example, set the parameter to:

• 0.0.0.0/0, ::/0 to allow any remote IPv4 and IPv6 address to communicate with this client. Use this setting to route all traffic through the tunnel and use the WireGuard server as default gateway.
• Endpoint : Sets the hostname or IP address and the port of the server. The client uses this information to establish the connection.
• The optional persistent-keepalive parameter defines an interval in seconds in which WireGuard sends a keepalive packet to the server. Set this parameter if you use the client in a network with network address translation (NAT) or if a firewall closes the UDP connection after some time of inactivity.

Chapter 9. Configuring IP tunnels

Similar to a VPN, an IP tunnel directly connects two networks over a third network, such as the internet. However, not all tunnel protocols support encryption.

The routers in both networks that establish the tunnel requires at least two interfaces:

• One interface that is connected to the local network
• One interface that is connected to the network through which the tunnel is established.

To establish the tunnel, you create a virtual interface on both routers with an IP address from the remote subnet.

NetworkManager supports the following IP tunnels:

• Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
• Generic Routing Encapsulation over IPv6 (IP6GRE)
• Generic Routing Encapsulation Terminal Access Point (GRETAP)
• Generic Routing Encapsulation Terminal Access Point over IPv6 (IP6GRETAP)
• IPv4 over IPv4 (IPIP)
• IPv4 over IPv6 (IPIP6)
• IPv6 over IPv6 (IP6IP6)
• Simple Internet Transition (SIT)

Depending on the type, these tunnels act either on layer 2 or 3 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.

9.1. Configuring an IPIP tunnel using nmcli to encapsulate IPv4 traffic in IPv4 packets

An IP over IP (IPIP) tunnel operates on OSI layer 3 and encapsulates IPv4 traffic in IPv4 packets as described in RFC 2003 .

Data sent through an IPIP tunnel is not encrypted. For security reasons, use the tunnel only for data that is already encrypted, for example, by other protocols, such as HTTPS.

Note that IPIP tunnels support only unicast packets. If you require an IPv4 tunnel that supports multicast, see Configuring a GRE tunnel using nmcli to encapsulate layer-3 traffic in IPv4 packets .

For example, you can create an IPIP tunnel between two RHEL routers to connect two internal subnets over the internet as shown in the following diagram:

• Each RHEL router has a network interface that is connected to its local subnet.
• Each RHEL router has a network interface that is connected to the internet.
• The traffic you want to send through the tunnel is IPv4 unicast.

On the RHEL router in network A:

Create an IPIP tunnel interface named tun0 :

The remote and local parameters set the public IP addresses of the remote and the local routers.

Set the IPv4 address to the tun0 device:

Note that a /30 subnet with two usable IP addresses is sufficient for the tunnel.

Configure the tun0 connection to use a manual IPv4 configuration:

Add a static route that routes traffic to the 172.16.0.0/24 network to the tunnel IP on router B:

Enable the tun0 connection.

Enable packet forwarding:

On the RHEL router in network B:

The remote and local parameters set the public IP addresses of the remote and local routers.

Add a static route that routes traffic to the 192.0.2.0/24 network to the tunnel IP on router A:

From each RHEL router, ping the IP address of the internal interface of the other router:

On Router A, ping 172.16.0.1 :

On Router B, ping 192.0.2.1 :

9.2. Configuring a GRE tunnel using nmcli to encapsulate layer-3 traffic in IPv4 packets

A Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel encapsulates layer-3 traffic in IPv4 packets as described in RFC 2784 . A GRE tunnel can encapsulate any layer 3 protocol with a valid Ethernet type.

Data sent through a GRE tunnel is not encrypted. For security reasons, use the tunnel only for data that is already encrypted, for example, by other protocols, such as HTTPS.

For example, you can create a GRE tunnel between two RHEL routers to connect two internal subnets over the internet as shown in the following diagram:

The gre0 device name is reserved. Use gre1 or a different name for the device.

Create a GRE tunnel interface named gre1 :

Set the IPv4 address to the gre1 device:

Configure the gre1 connection to use a manual IPv4 configuration:

Enable the gre1 connection.

9.3. Configuring a GRETAP tunnel to transfer Ethernet frames over IPv4

A Generic Routing Encapsulation Terminal Access Point (GRETAP) tunnel operates on OSI level 2 and encapsulates Ethernet traffic in IPv4 packets as described in RFC 2784 .

Data sent through a GRETAP tunnel is not encrypted. For security reasons, establish the tunnel over a VPN or a different encrypted connection.

For example, you can create a GRETAP tunnel between two RHEL routers to connect two networks using a bridge as shown in the following diagram:

The gretap0 device name is reserved. Use gretap1 or a different name for the device.

• Each RHEL router has a network interface that is connected to its local network, and the interface has no IP configuration assigned.

Create a bridge interface named bridge0 :

Configure the IP settings of the bridge:

Add a new connection profile for the interface that is connected to local network to the bridge:

Add a new connection profile for the GRETAP tunnel interface to the bridge:

Optional: Disable the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) if you do not need it:

By default, STP is enabled and causes a delay before you can use the connection.

Configure that activating the bridge0 connection automatically activates the ports of the bridge:

Active the bridge0 connection:

On both routers, verify that the enp1s0 and gretap1 connections are connected and that the CONNECTION column displays the connection name of the port:

On Router A, ping 192.0.2.2 :

9.4. Additional resources

• ip-link(8) man page

Chapter 10. Using a VXLAN to create a virtual layer-2 domain for VMs

A virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) is a networking protocol that tunnels layer-2 traffic over an IP network using the UDP protocol. For example, certain virtual machines (VMs), that are running on different hosts can communicate over a VXLAN tunnel. The hosts can be in different subnets or even in different data centers around the world. From the perspective of the VMs, other VMs in the same VXLAN are within the same layer-2 domain:

In this example, RHEL-host-A and RHEL-host-B use a bridge, br0 , to connect the virtual network of a VM on each host with a VXLAN named vxlan10 . Due to this configuration, the VXLAN is invisible to the VMs, and the VMs do not require any special configuration. If you later connect more VMs to the same virtual network, the VMs are automatically members of the same virtual layer-2 domain.

Just as normal layer-2 traffic, data in a VXLAN is not encrypted. For security reasons, use a VXLAN over a VPN or other types of encrypted connections.

10.1. Benefits of VXLANs

A virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) provides the following major benefits:

• VXLANs use a 24-bit ID. Therefore, you can create up to 16,777,216 isolated networks. For example, a virtual LAN (VLAN), supports only 4,096 isolated networks.
• VXLANs use the IP protocol. This enables you to route the traffic and virtually run systems in different networks and locations within the same layer-2 domain.
• Unlike most tunnel protocols, a VXLAN is not only a point-to-point network. A VXLAN can learn the IP addresses of the other endpoints either dynamically or use statically-configured forwarding entries.
• Certain network cards support UDP tunnel-related offload features.
• /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc- <kernel_version> /Documentation/networking/vxlan.rst provided by the kernel-doc package

10.2. Configuring the Ethernet interface on the hosts

To connect a RHEL VM host to the Ethernet, create a network connection profile, configure the IP settings, and activate the profile.

Run this procedure on both RHEL hosts, and adjust the IP address configuration accordingly.

• The host is connected to the Ethernet.

Add a new Ethernet connection profile to NetworkManager:

Skip this step if the network uses DHCP.

Activate the Example connection:

Ping a host in a remote network to verify the IP settings:

Note that you cannot ping the other VM host before you have configured the network on that host as well.

10.3. Creating a network bridge with a VXLAN attached

To make a virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) invisible to virtual machines (VMs), create a bridge on a host, and attach the VXLAN to the bridge. Use NetworkManager to create both the bridge and the VXLAN. You do not add any traffic access point (TAP) devices of the VMs, typically named vnet* on the host, to the bridge. The libvirtd service adds them dynamically when the VMs start.

Run this procedure on both RHEL hosts, and adjust the IP addresses accordingly.

Create the bridge br0 :

This command sets no IPv4 and IPv6 addresses on the bridge device, because this bridge works on layer 2.

Create the VXLAN interface and attach it to br0 :

This command uses the following settings:

• id 10 : Sets the VXLAN identifier.
• local 198.51.100.2 : Sets the source IP address of outgoing packets.
• remote 203.0.113.1 : Sets the unicast or multicast IP address to use in outgoing packets when the destination link layer address is not known in the VXLAN device forwarding database.
• controller br0 : Sets this VXLAN connection to be created as a port in the br0 connection.
• ipv4.method disabled and ipv6.method disabled : Disables IPv4 and IPv6 on the bridge.

By default, NetworkManager uses 8472 as the destination port. If the destination port is different, additionally, pass the destination-port <port_number> option to the command.

Activate the br0 connection profile:

Open port 8472 for incoming UDP connections in the local firewall:

Display the forwarding table:

10.4. Creating a virtual network in libvirt with an existing bridge

To enable virtual machines (VM) to use the br0 bridge with the attached virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN), first add a virtual network to the libvirtd service that uses this bridge.

• You installed the libvirt package.
• You started and enabled the libvirtd service.
• You configured the br0 device with the VXLAN on RHEL.

Create the ~/vxlan10-bridge.xml file with the following content:

Use the ~/vxlan10-bridge.xml file to create a new virtual network in libvirt :

Remove the ~/vxlan10-bridge.xml file:

Start the vxlan10-bridge virtual network:

Configure the vxlan10-bridge virtual network to start automatically when the libvirtd service starts:

Display the list of virtual networks:

• virsh(1) man page

10.5. Configuring virtual machines to use VXLAN

To configure a VM to use a bridge device with an attached virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) on the host, create a new VM that uses the vxlan10-bridge virtual network or update the settings of existing VMs to use this network.

Perform this procedure on the RHEL hosts.

• You configured the vxlan10-bridge virtual network in libvirtd .

To create a new VM and configure it to use the vxlan10-bridge network, pass the --network network: vxlan10-bridge option to the virt-install command when you create the VM:

To change the network settings of an existing VM:

Connect the VM’s network interface to the vxlan10-bridge virtual network:

Shut down the VM, and start it again:

Display the virtual network interfaces of the VM on the host:

Display the interfaces attached to the vxlan10-bridge bridge:

Note that the libvirtd service dynamically updates the bridge’s configuration. When you start a VM which uses the vxlan10-bridge network, the corresponding vnet* device on the host appears as a port of the bridge.

Use address resolution protocol (ARP) requests to verify whether VMs are in the same VXLAN:

• Start two or more VMs in the same VXLAN.

Send an ARP request from one VM to the other one:

If the command shows a reply, the VM is in the same layer-2 domain and, in this case in the same VXLAN.

Install the iputils package to use the arping utility.

• virt-install(1) man page
• virt-xml(1) man page
• arping(8) man page

Chapter 11. Managing wifi connections

RHEL provides multiple utilities and applications to configure and connect to wifi networks, for example:

• Use the nmcli utility to configure connections by using the command line.
• Use the nmtui application to configure connections in a text-based user interface.
• Use the GNOME system menu to quickly connect to wifi networks that do not require any configuration.
• Use the GNOME Settings application to configure connections by using the GNOME application.
• Use the nm-connection-editor application to configure connections in a graphical user interface.
• Use the network RHEL system role to automate the configuration of connections on one or multiple hosts.

11.1. Supported wifi security types

Depending on the security type a wifi network supports, you can transmitted data more or less securely.

Do not connect to wifi networks that do not use encryption or which support only the insecure WEP or WPA standards.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 supports the following wifi security types:

• None : Encryption is disabled, and data is transferred in plain text over the network.
• Enhanced Open : With opportunistic wireless encryption (OWE), devices negotiate unique pairwise master keys (PMK) to encrypt connections in wireless networks without authentication.
• LEAP : The Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol, which was developed by Cisco, is a proprietary version of the extensible authentication protocol (EAP).
• WPA & WPA2 Personal : In personal mode, the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) authentication methods use a pre-shared key.
• WPA & WPA2 Enterprise : In enterprise mode, WPA and WPA2 use the EAP framework and authenticate users to a remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS) server.
• WPA3 Personal : Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) Personal uses simultaneous authentication of equals (SAE) instead of pre-shared keys (PSK) to prevent dictionary attacks. WPA3 uses perfect forward secrecy (PFS).

11.2. Connecting to a wifi network by using nmcli

You can use the nmcli utility to connect to a wifi network. When you attempt to connect to a network for the first time, the utility automatically creates a NetworkManager connection profile for it. If the network requires additional settings, such as static IP addresses, you can then modify the profile after it has been automatically created.

• A wifi device is installed on the host.
• The wifi device is enabled, if it has a hardware switch.

If the wifi radio has been disabled in NetworkManager, enable this feature:

Optional: Display the available wifi networks:

The service set identifier ( SSID ) column contains the names of the networks. If the column shows -- , the access point of this network does not broadcast an SSID.

Connect to the wifi network:

If you prefer to set the password in the command instead of entering it interactively, use the password wifi-password option in the command instead of --ask :

Note that, if the network requires static IP addresses, NetworkManager fails to activate the connection at this point. You can configure the IP addresses in later steps.

If the network requires static IP addresses:

Configure the IPv4 address settings, for example:

Configure the IPv6 address settings, for example:

Re-activate the connection:

Display the active connections:

If the output lists the wifi connection you have created, the connection is active.

Ping a hostname or IP address:

• nm-settings-nmcli(5) man page

11.3. Connecting to a wifi network by using the GNOME system menu

You can use the GNOME system menu to connect to a wifi network. When you connect to a network for the first time, GNOME creates a NetworkManager connection profile for it. If you configure the connection profile to not automatically connect, you can also use the GNOME system menu to manually connect to a wifi network with an existing NetworkManager connection profile.

Using the GNOME system menu to establish a connection to a wifi network for the first time has certain limitations. For example, you can not configure IP address settings. In this case first configure the connections:

• In the GNOME settings application
• In the nm-connection-editor application
• Using nmcli commands
• Open the system menu on the right side of the top bar.
• Expand the Wi-Fi Not Connected entry.

Click Select Network :

• Select the wifi network you want to connect to.
• Click Connect .
• If this is the first time you connect to this network, enter the password for the network, and click Connect .

Open the system menu on the right side of the top bar, and verify that the wifi network is connected:

If the network appears in the list, it is connected.

11.4. Connecting to a wifi network by using the GNOME settings application

You can use the GNOME settings application, also named gnome-control-center , to connect to a wifi network and configure the connection. When you connect to the network for the first time, GNOME creates a NetworkManager connection profile for it.

In GNOME settings , you can configure wifi connections for all wifi network security types that RHEL supports.

• Press the Super key, type Wi-Fi , and press Enter .
• Click on the name of the wifi network you want to connect to.
• Enter the password for the network, and click Connect .

If the network requires additional settings, such as static IP addresses or a security type other than WPA2 Personal:

• Click the gear icon next to the network’s name.

Optional: Configure the network profile on the Details tab to not automatically connect.

If you deactivate this feature, you must always manually connect to the network, for example, by using GNOME settings or the GNOME system menu.

• Configure IPv4 settings on the IPv4 tab, and IPv6 settings on the IPv6 tab.

On the Security tab, select the authentication of the network, such as WPA3 Personal , and enter the password.

Depending on the selected security, the application shows additional fields. Fill them accordingly. For details, ask the administrator of the wifi network.

11.5. Configuring a wifi connection by using nmtui

The nmtui application provides a text-based user interface for NetworkManager. You can use nmtui to connect to a wifi network.

• Press the Add button.
• Select Wi-Fi from the list of network types, and press Enter .
• Enter the network device name into the Device field.
• Enter the name of the Wi-Fi network, the Service Set Identifier (SSID), into the SSID field.
• Leave the Mode field set to its default, Client .

Select the Security field, press Enter , and set the authentication type of the network from the list.

Depending on the authentication type you have selected, nmtui displays different fields.

• Fill the authentication type-related fields.

If the Wi-Fi network requires static IP addresses:

• Press the Automatic button next to the protocol, and select Manual from the displayed list.
• Press the Show button next to the protocol you want to configure to display additional fields, and fill them.

Press the OK button to create and automatically activate the new connection.

• Press the Back button to return to the main menu.

11.6. Configuring a wifi connection by using nm-connection-editor

You can use the nm-connection-editor application to create a connection profile for a wireless network. In this application you can configure all wifi network authentication types that RHEL supports.

By default, NetworkManager enables the auto-connect feature for connection profiles and automatically connects to a saved network if it is available.

Open a terminal and enter:

• Select the Wi-Fi connection type, and click Create .
• Optional: Set a name for the connection profile.

Optional: Configure the network profile on the General tab to not automatically connect.

• On the Wi-Fi tab, enter the service set identifier (SSID) in the SSID field.

On the Wi-Fi Security tab, select the authentication type for the network, such as WPA3 Personal , and enter the password.

• Close the Network Connections window.

11.7. Configuring a wifi connection with 802.1X network authentication by using the network RHEL system role

Using RHEL system role, you can automate the creation of a wifi connection. For example, you can remotely add a wireless connection profile for the wlp1s0 interface using an Ansible Playbook. The created profile uses the 802.1X standard to authenticate the client to a wifi network. The playbook configures the connection profile to use DHCP. To configure static IP settings, adapt the parameters in the ip dictionary accordingly.

• The network supports 802.1X network authentication.
• You installed the wpa_supplicant package on the managed node.
• DHCP is available in the network of the managed node.

The following files required for TLS authentication exist on the control node:

• The client key is stored in the /srv/data/client.key file.
• The client certificate is stored in the /srv/data/client.crt file.
• The CA certificate is stored in the /srv/data/ca.crt file.

These settings define a wifi connection profile for the wlp1s0 interface. The profile uses 802.1X standard to authenticate the client to the wifi network. The connection retrieves IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, default gateway, routes, DNS servers, and search domains from a DHCP server and IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC).

11.8. Configuring a wifi connection with 802.1X network authentication in an existing profile by using nmcli

Using the nmcli utility, you can configure the client to authenticate itself to the network. For example, you can configure Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) authentication with the Microsoft Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol version 2 (MSCHAPv2) in an existing NetworkManager wifi connection profile named wlp1s0 .

• The network must have 802.1X network authentication.
• The wifi connection profile exists in NetworkManager and has a valid IP configuration.
• If the client is required to verify the certificate of the authenticator, the Certificate Authority (CA) certificate must be stored in the /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/ directory.
• The wpa_supplicant package is installed.

Set the wifi security mode to wpa-eap , the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) to peap , the inner authentication protocol to mschapv2 , and the user name:

Note that you must set the wireless-security.key-mgmt , 802-1x.eap , 802-1x.phase2-auth , and 802-1x.identity parameters in a single command.

Optionally, store the password in the configuration:

By default, NetworkManager stores the password in plain text in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/keys- connection_name file, which is readable only by the root user. However, plain text passwords in a configuration file can be a security risk.

To increase the security, set the 802-1x.password-flags parameter to 0x1 . With this setting, on servers with the GNOME desktop environment or the nm-applet running, NetworkManager retrieves the password from these services. In other cases, NetworkManager prompts for the password.

If the client needs to verify the certificate of the authenticator, set the 802-1x.ca-cert parameter in the connection profile to the path of the CA certificate:

For security reasons, Red Hat recommends the certificate of the authenticator to enable clients to validate the identity of the authenticator.

Activate the connection profile:

• Access resources on the network that require network authentication.
• Managing wifi connections

11.9. Manually setting the wireless regulatory domain

On RHEL, a udev rule executes the setregdomain utility to set the wireless regulatory domain. The utility then provides this information to the kernel.

By default, setregdomain attempts to determine the country code automatically. If this fails, the wireless regulatory domain setting might be wrong. To work around this problem, you can manually set the country code.

Manually setting the regulatory domain disables the automatic detection. Therefore, if you later use the computer in a different country, the previously configured setting might no longer be correct. In this case, remove the /etc/sysconfig/regdomain file to switch back to automatic detection or use this procedure to manually update the regulatory domain setting again.

Optional: Display the current regulatory domain settings:

Create the /etc/sysconfig/regdomain file with the following content:

Set the COUNTRY variable to an ISO 3166-1 alpha2 country code, such as DE for Germany or US for the United States of America.

Set the regulatory domain:

Display the regulatory domain settings:

• setregdomain(1) man page
• iw(8) man page
• regulatory.bin(5) man page
• ISO 3166 Country Codes

Chapter 12. Configuring RHEL as a WPA2 or WPA3 Personal access point

On a host with a wifi device, you can use NetworkManager to configure this host as an access point. Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) and Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) Personal provide secure authentication methods, and wireless clients can use a pre-shared key (PSK) to connect to the access point and use services on the RHEL host and in the network.

When you configure an access point, NetworkManager automatically:

• Configures the dnsmasq service to provide DHCP and DNS services for clients
• Enables IP forwarding
• Adds nftables firewall rules to masquerade traffic from the wifi device and configures IP forwarding
• The wifi device supports running in access point mode.
• The wifi device is not in use.
• The host has internet access.

List the wifi devices to identify the one that should provide the access point:

Verify that the device supports the access point mode:

To use a wifi device as an access point, the device must support this feature.

Install the dnsmasq and NetworkManager-wifi packages:

NetworkManager uses the dnsmasq service to provide DHCP and DNS services to clients of the access point.

Create the initial access point configuration:

This command creates a connection profile for an access point on the wlp0s20f3 device that provides WPA2 and WPA3 Personal authentication. The name of the wireless network, the Service Set Identifier (SSID), is Example-Hotspot and uses the pre-shared key password .

Optional: Configure the access point to support only WPA3:

By default, NetworkManager uses the IP address 10.42.0.1 for the wifi device and assigns IP addresses from the remaining 10.42.0.0/24 subnet to clients. To configure a different subnet and IP address, enter:

The IP address you set, in this case 192.0.2.254 , is the one that NetworkManager assigns to the wifi device. Clients will use this IP address as default gateway and DNS server.

On the server:

Verify that NetworkManager started the dnsmasq service and that the service listens on port 67 (DHCP) and 53 (DNS):

Display the nftables rule set to ensure that NetworkManager enabled forwarding and masquerading for traffic from the 10.42.0.0/24 subnet:

On a client with a wifi adapter:

Display the list of available networks:

• Connect to the Example-Hotspot wireless network. See Managing Wi-Fi connections .

Ping a host on the remote network or the internet to verify that the connection works:

Chapter 13. Using MACsec to encrypt layer-2 traffic in the same physical network

You can use MACsec to secure the communication between two devices (point-to-point). For example, your branch office is connected over a Metro-Ethernet connection with the central office, you can configure MACsec on the two hosts that connect the offices to increase the security.

Media Access Control security (MACsec) is a layer 2 protocol that secures different traffic types over the Ethernet links including:

• dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP)
• address resolution protocol (ARP)
• Internet Protocol version 4 / 6 ( IPv4 / IPv6 ) and
• any traffic over IP such as TCP or UDP

MACsec encrypts and authenticates all traffic in LANs, by default with the GCM-AES-128 algorithm, and uses a pre-shared key to establish the connection between the participant hosts. If you want to change the pre-shared key, you need to update the NM configuration on all hosts in the network that uses MACsec.

A MACsec connection uses an Ethernet device, such as an Ethernet network card, VLAN, or tunnel device, as parent. You can either set an IP configuration only on the MACsec device to communicate with other hosts only using the encrypted connection, or you can also set an IP configuration on the parent device. In the latter case, you can use the parent device to communicate with other hosts using an unencrypted connection and the MACsec device for encrypted connections.

MACsec does not require any special hardware. For example, you can use any switch, except if you want to encrypt traffic only between a host and a switch. In this scenario, the switch must also support MACsec.

In other words, there are 2 common methods to configure MACsec;

• host to host and
• host to switch then switch to other host(s)

You can use MACsec only between hosts that are in the same (physical or virtual) LAN.

13.1. Configuring a MACsec connection using nmcli

You can configure Ethernet interfaces to use MACsec using the nmcli utility. For example, you can create a MACsec connection between two hosts that are connected over Ethernet.

On the first host on which you configure MACsec:

Create the connectivity association key (CAK) and connectivity-association key name (CKN) for the pre-shared key:

Create a 16-byte hexadecimal CAK:

Create a 32-byte hexadecimal CKN:

• On both hosts you want to connect over a MACsec connection:

Create the MACsec connection:

Use the CAK and CKN generated in the previous step in the macsec.mka-cak and macsec.mka-ckn parameters. The values must be the same on every host in the MACsec-protected network.

Configure the IP settings on the MACsec connection.

Configure the IPv4 settings. For example, to set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the macsec0 connection, enter:

Configure the IPv6 settings. For example, to set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server to the macsec0 connection, enter:

Verify that the traffic is encrypted:

Optional: Display the unencrypted traffic:

Display MACsec statistics:

Display individual counters for each type of protection: integrity-only (encrypt off) and encryption (encrypt on)

13.2. Configuring a MACsec connection using nmstatectl

You can configure Ethernet interfaces to use MACsec through the nmstatectl utility in a declarative way. For example, in a YAML file, you describe the desired state of your network, which is supposed to have a MACsec connection between two hosts connected over Ethernet. The nmstatectl utility interprets the YAML file and deploys persistent and consistent network configuration across the hosts.

Using the MACsec security standard for securing communication at the link layer, also known as layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model provides the following notable benefits:

• Encryption at layer 2 eliminates the need for encrypting individual services at layer 7. This reduces the overhead associated with managing a large number of certificates for each endpoint on each host.
• Point-to-point security between directly connected network devices such as routers and switches.
• No changes needed for applications and higher-layer protocols.
• A physical or virtual Ethernet Network Interface Controller (NIC) exists in the server configuration.

On the first host on which you configure MACsec, create the connectivity association key (CAK) and connectivity-association key name (CKN) for the pre-shared key:

On both hosts that you want to connect over a MACsec connection, complete the following steps:

Create a YAML file, for example create-macsec-connection.yml , with the following settings:

• Use the CAK and CKN generated in the previous step in the mka-cak and mka-ckn parameters. The values must be the same on every host in the MACsec-protected network.

Optional: In the same YAML configuration file, you can also configure the following settings:

• A static IPv4 address - 192.0.2.1 with the /32 subnet mask
• An IPv4 default gateway - 192.0.2.2
• MACsec: a different solution to encrypt network traffic

13.3. Additional resources

• MACsec: a different solution to encrypt network traffic blog.

Chapter 14. Getting started with IPVLAN

IPVLAN is a driver for a virtual network device that can be used in container environment to access the host network. IPVLAN exposes a single MAC address to the external network regardless the number of IPVLAN device created inside the host network. This means that a user can have multiple IPVLAN devices in multiple containers and the corresponding switch reads a single MAC address. IPVLAN driver is useful when the local switch imposes constraints on the total number of MAC addresses that it can manage.

14.1. IPVLAN modes

The following modes are available for IPVLAN:

In IPVLAN L2 mode , virtual devices receive and respond to address resolution protocol (ARP) requests. The netfilter framework runs only inside the container that owns the virtual device. No netfilter chains are executed in the default namespace on the containerized traffic. Using L2 mode provides good performance, but less control on the network traffic.

In L3 mode , virtual devices process only L3 traffic and above. Virtual devices do not respond to ARP request and users must configure the neighbour entries for the IPVLAN IP addresses on the relevant peers manually. The egress traffic of a relevant container is landed on the netfilter POSTROUTING and OUTPUT chains in the default namespace while the ingress traffic is threaded in the same way as L2 mode . Using L3 mode provides good control but decreases the network traffic performance.

In L3S mode , virtual devices process the same way as in L3 mode , except that both egress and ingress traffics of a relevant container are landed on netfilter chain in the default namespace. L3S mode behaves in a similar way to L3 mode but provides greater control of the network.

The IPVLAN virtual device does not receive broadcast and multicast traffic in case of L3 and L3S modes.

14.2. Comparison of IPVLAN and MACVLAN

The following table shows the major differences between MACVLAN and IPVLAN:

Both IPVLAN and MACVLAN do not require any level of encapsulation.

14.3. Creating and configuring the IPVLAN device using iproute2

This procedure shows how to set up the IPVLAN device using iproute2 .

To create an IPVLAN device, enter the following command:

Note that network interface controller (NIC) is a hardware component which connects a computer to a network.

Example 14.1. Creating an IPVLAN device

To assign an IPv4 or IPv6 address to the interface, enter the following command:

In case of configuring an IPVLAN device in L3 mode or L3S mode , make the following setups:

Configure the neighbor setup for the remote peer on the remote host:

where MAC_address is the MAC address of the real NIC on which an IPVLAN device is based on.

Configure an IPVLAN device for L3 mode with the following command:

For L3S mode :

where IP-address represents the address of the remote peer.

To set an IPVLAN device active, enter the following command:

To check if the IPVLAN device is active, execute the following command on the remote host:

where the IP_address uses the IP address of the IPVLAN device.

Chapter 15. Configuring NetworkManager to ignore certain devices

By default, NetworkManager manages all devices. To ignore certain devices, you can configure NetworkManager by setting as unmanaged .

15.1. Configuring the loopback interface by using nmcli

By default, NetworkManager does not manage the loopback ( lo ) interface. After creating a connection profile for the lo interface, you can configure this device by using NetworkManager. Some of the examples are as follows:

• Assign additional IP addresses to the lo interface
• Define DNS addresses
• Change the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size of the lo interface

Create a new connection of type loopback :

Configure custom connection settings, for example:

To assign an additional IP address to the interface, enter:

NetworkManager manages the lo interface by always assigning the IP addresses 127.0.0.1 and ::1 that are persistent across the reboots. You can not override 127.0.0.1 and ::1 . However, you can assign additional IP addresses to the interface.

To set a custom Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU), enter:

To set an IP address to your DNS server, enter:

If you set a DNS server in the loopback connection profile, this entry is always available in the /etc/resolv.conf file. The DNS server entry remains independent of whether or not the host roams between different networks.

Display the settings of the lo interface:

Verify the DNS address:

15.2. Permanently configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager

You can permanently configure devices as unmanaged based on several criteria, such as the interface name, MAC address, or device type.

To temporarily configure network devices as unmanaged , see Temporarily configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager .

Optional: Display the list of devices to identify the device or MAC address you want to set as unmanaged :

Create the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/99-unmanaged-devices.conf file with the following content:

To configure a specific interface as unmanaged, add:

To configure a device with a specific MAC address as unmanaged, add:

To configure all devices of a specific type as unmanaged, add:

To set multiple devices as unmanaged, separate the entries in the unmanaged-devices parameter with a semicolon, for example:

Reload the NetworkManager service:

Display the list of devices:

The unmanaged state next to the enp1s0 device indicates that NetworkManager does not manage this device.

If the device is not shown as unmanaged , display the NetworkManager configuration:

If the output does not match the settings that you configured, ensure that no configuration file with a higher priority overrides your settings. For details about how NetworkManager merges multiple configuration files, see the NetworkManager.conf(5) man page.

15.3. Temporarily configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager

You can temporarily configure devices as unmanaged .

Use this method, for example, for testing purposes. To permanently configure network devices as unmanaged , see Permanently configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager .

Optional: Display the list of devices to identify the device you want to set as unmanaged :

Set the enp1s0 device to the unmanaged state:

• NetworkManager.conf(5) man page

Chapter 16. Creating a dummy interface

As a Red Hat Enterprise Linux user, you can create and use dummy network interfaces for debugging and testing purposes. A dummy interface provides a device to route packets without actually transmitting them. It enables you to create additional loopback-like devices managed by NetworkManager and makes an inactive SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) address look like a real address for local programs.

16.1. Creating a dummy interface with both an IPv4 and IPv6 address using nmcli

You can create a dummy interface with various settings, such as IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. After creating the interface, NetworkManager automatically assigns it to the default public firewalld zone.

Create a dummy interface named dummy0 with static IPv4 and IPv6 addresses:

To configure a dummy interface without IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, set both the ipv4.method and ipv6.method parameters to disabled . Otherwise, IP auto-configuration fails, and NetworkManager deactivates the connection and removes the device.

List the connection profiles:

Chapter 17. Using NetworkManager to disable IPv6 for a specific connection

On a system that uses NetworkManager to manage network interfaces, you can disable the IPv6 protocol if the network only uses IPv4. If you disable IPv6 , NetworkManager automatically sets the corresponding sysctl values in the Kernel.

If disabling IPv6 using kernel tunables or kernel boot parameters, additional consideration must be given to system configuration. For more information, see the How do I disable or enable the IPv6 protocol in RHEL? article.

17.1. Disabling IPv6 on a connection using nmcli

You can use the nmcli utility to disable the IPv6 protocol on the command line.

• The system uses NetworkManager to manage network interfaces.

Optionally, display the list of network connections:

Set the ipv6.method parameter of the connection to disabled :

Restart the network connection:

Display the IP settings of the device:

If no inet6 entry is displayed, IPv6 is disabled on the device.

Verify that the /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/ enp1s0 /disable_ipv6 file now contains the value 1 :

The value 1 means that IPv6 is disabled for the device.

Chapter 18. Changing a hostname

The hostname of a system is the name on the system itself. You can set the name when you install RHEL, and you can change it afterwards.

18.1. Changing a hostname using nmcli

You can use the nmcli utility to update the system hostname. Note that other utilities might use a different term, such as static or persistent hostname.

Optional: Display the current hostname setting:

Set the new hostname:

NetworkManager automatically restarts the systemd-hostnamed to activate the new name. For the changes to take effect, reboot the host:

Alternatively, if you know which services use the hostname:

Restart all services that only read the hostname when the service starts:

• Active shell users must re-login for the changes to take effect.

Display the hostname:

18.2. Changing a hostname using hostnamectl

You can use the hostnamectl utility to update the hostname. By default, this utility sets the following hostname types:

• Static hostname: Stored in the /etc/hostname file. Typically, services use this name as the hostname.
• Pretty hostname: A descriptive name, such as Proxy server in data center A .
• Transient hostname: A fall-back value that is typically received from the network configuration.

This command sets the static, pretty, and transient hostname to the new value. To set only a specific type, pass the --static , --pretty , or --transient option to the command.

The hostnamectl utility automatically restarts the systemd-hostnamed to activate the new name. For the changes to take effect, reboot the host:

• hostnamectl(1)
• systemd-hostnamed.service(8)

Chapter 19. Configuring NetworkManager DHCP settings

NetworkManager provides different configuration options related to DHCP. For example, you can configure NetworkManager to use the build-in DHCP client (default) or an external client, and you can influence DHCP settings of individual profiles.

19.1. Changing the DHCP client of NetworkManager

By default, NetworkManager uses its internal DHCP client. However, if you require a DHCP client with features that the built-in client does not provide, you can alternatively configure NetworkManager to use dhclient .

Note that RHEL does not provide dhcpcd and, therefore, NetworkManager can not use this client.

Create the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/dhcp-client.conf file with the following content:

You can set the dhcp parameter to internal (default) or dhclient .

If you set the dhcp parameter to dhclient , install the dhcp-client package:

Restart NetworkManager:

Note that the restart temporarily interrupts all network connections.

Search in the /var/log/messages log file for an entry similar to the following:

This log entry confirms that NetworkManager uses dhclient as DHCP client.

19.2. Configuring the DHCP behavior of a NetworkManager connection

A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client requests the dynamic IP address and corresponding configuration information from a DHCP server each time a client connects to the network.

When you configured a connection to retrieve an IP address from a DHCP server, the NetworkManager requests an IP address from a DHCP server. By default, the client waits 45 seconds for this request to be completed. When a DHCP connection is started, a dhcp client requests an IP address from a DHCP server.

• A connection that uses DHCP is configured on the host.

Set the ipv4.dhcp-timeout and ipv6.dhcp-timeout properties. For example, to set both options to 30 seconds, enter:

Alternatively, set the parameters to infinity to configure that NetworkManager does not stop trying to request and renew an IP address until it is successful.

Optional: Configure the behavior if NetworkManager does not receive an IPv4 address before the timeout:

If you set the ipv4.may-fail option to:

yes , the status of the connection depends on the IPv6 configuration:

• If the IPv6 configuration is enabled and successful, NetworkManager activates the IPv6 connection and no longer tries to activate the IPv4 connection.
• If the IPv6 configuration is disabled or not configured, the connection fails.

no , the connection is deactivated. In this case:

• If the autoconnect property of the connection is enabled, NetworkManager retries to activate the connection as many times as set in the autoconnect-retries property. The default is 4 .
• If the connection still cannot acquire a DHCP address, auto-activation fails. Note that after 5 minutes, the auto-connection process starts again to acquire an IP address from the DHCP server.

Optional: Configure the behavior if NetworkManager does not receive an IPv6 address before the timeout:

Chapter 20. Running dhclient exit hooks using NetworkManager a dispatcher script

You can use a NetworkManager dispatcher script to execute dhclient exit hooks.

20.1. The concept of NetworkManager dispatcher scripts

The NetworkManager-dispatcher service executes user-provided scripts in alphabetical order when network events happen. These scripts are typically shell scripts, but can be any executable script or application. You can use dispatcher scripts, for example, to adjust network-related settings that you cannot manage with NetworkManager.

You can store dispatcher scripts in the following directories:

• /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/ : The general location for dispatcher scripts the root user can edit.
• /usr/lib/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/ : For pre-deployed immutable dispatcher scripts.

For security reasons, the NetworkManager-dispatcher service executes scripts only if the following conditions met:

• The script is owned by the root user.
• The script is only readable and writable by root .
• The setuid bit is not set on the script.

The NetworkManager-dispatcher service runs each script with two arguments:

• The interface name of the device the operation happened on.
• The action, such as up , when the interface has been activated.

The Dispatcher scripts section in the NetworkManager(8) man page provides an overview of actions and environment variables you can use in scripts.

The NetworkManager-dispatcher service runs one script at a time, but asynchronously from the main NetworkManager process. Note that, if a script is queued, the service will always run it, even if a later event makes it obsolete. However, the NetworkManager-dispatcher service runs scripts that are symbolic links referring to files in /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/no-wait.d/ immediately, without waiting for the termination of previous scripts, and in parallel.

• NetworkManager(8) man page

20.2. Creating a NetworkManager dispatcher script that runs dhclient exit hooks

When a DHCP server assigns or updates an IPv4 address, NetworkManager can run a dispatcher script stored in the /etc/dhcp/dhclient-exit-hooks.d/ directory. This dispatcher script can then, for example, run dhclient exit hooks.

• The dhclient exit hooks are stored in the /etc/dhcp/dhclient-exit-hooks.d/ directory.

Create the /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/12-dhclient-down file with the following content:

Set the root user as owner of the file:

Set the permissions so that only the root user can execute it:

Restore the SELinux context:

Chapter 21. Manually configuring the /etc/resolv.conf file

By default, NetworkManager dynamically updates the /etc/resolv.conf file with the DNS settings from active NetworkManager connection profiles. However, you can disable this behavior and manually configure DNS settings in /etc/resolv.conf .

Alternatively, if you require a specific order of DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf , see Configuring the order of DNS servers .

21.1. Disabling DNS processing in the NetworkManager configuration

By default, NetworkManager manages DNS settings in the /etc/resolv.conf file, and you can configure the order of DNS servers. Alternatively, you can disable DNS processing in NetworkManager if you prefer to manually configure DNS settings in /etc/resolv.conf .

As the root user, create the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/90-dns-none.conf file with the following content by using a text editor:

After you reload the service, NetworkManager no longer updates the /etc/resolv.conf file. However, the last contents of the file are preserved.

• Optionally, remove the Generated by NetworkManager comment from /etc/resolv.conf to avoid confusion.
• Edit the /etc/resolv.conf file and manually update the configuration.

Display the /etc/resolv.conf file:

If you successfully disabled DNS processing, NetworkManager did not override the manually configured settings.

Display the NetworkManager configuration to ensure that no other configuration file with a higher priority overrode the setting:

• Configuring the order of DNS servers using NetworkManager

21.2. Replacing /etc/resolv.conf with a symbolic link to manually configure DNS settings

By default, NetworkManager manages DNS settings in the /etc/resolv.conf file, and you can configure the order of DNS servers. Alternatively, you can disable DNS processing in NetworkManager if you prefer to manually configure DNS settings in /etc/resolv.conf . For example, NetworkManager does not automatically update the DNS configuration if /etc/resolv.conf is a symbolic link.

• The NetworkManager rc-manager configuration option is not set to file . To verify, use the NetworkManager --print-config command.
• Create a file, such as /etc/resolv.conf.manually-configured , and add the DNS configuration for your environment to it. Use the same parameters and syntax as in the original /etc/resolv.conf .

Remove the /etc/resolv.conf file:

Create a symbolic link named /etc/resolv.conf that refers to /etc/resolv.conf.manually-configured :

• resolv.conf(5) man page

Chapter 22. Configuring the order of DNS servers

Most applications use the getaddrinfo() function of the glibc library to resolve DNS requests. By default, glibc sends all DNS requests to the first DNS server specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file. If this server does not reply, RHEL uses the next server in this file. NetworkManager enables you to influence the order of DNS servers in etc/resolv.conf .

22.1. How NetworkManager orders DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf

NetworkManager orders DNS servers in the /etc/resolv.conf file based on the following rules:

• If only one connection profile exists, NetworkManager uses the order of IPv4 and IPv6 DNS server specified in that connection.

If multiple connection profiles are activated, NetworkManager orders DNS servers based on a DNS priority value. If you set DNS priorities, the behavior of NetworkManager depends on the value set in the dns parameter. You can set this parameter in the [main] section in the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file:

dns=default or if the dns parameter is not set:

NetworkManager orders the DNS servers from different connections based on the ipv4.dns-priority and ipv6.dns-priority parameter in each connection.

If you set no value or you set ipv4.dns-priority and ipv6.dns-priority to 0 , NetworkManager uses the global default value. See Default values of DNS priority parameters .

dns=dnsmasq or dns=systemd-resolved :

When you use one of these settings, NetworkManager sets either 127.0.0.1 for dnsmasq or 127.0.0.53 as nameserver entry in the /etc/resolv.conf file.

Both the dnsmasq and systemd-resolved services forward queries for the search domain set in a NetworkManager connection to the DNS server specified in that connection, and forwardes queries to other domains to the connection with the default route. When multiple connections have the same search domain set, dnsmasq and systemd-resolved forward queries for this domain to the DNS server set in the connection with the lowest priority value.

Default values of DNS priority parameters

NetworkManager uses the following default values for connections:

• 50 for VPN connections
• 100 for other connections

Valid DNS priority values:

You can set both the global default and connection-specific ipv4.dns-priority and ipv6.dns-priority parameters to a value between -2147483647 and 2147483647 .

• A lower value has a higher priority.
• Negative values have the special effect of excluding other configurations with a greater value. For example, if at least one connection with a negative priority value exists, NetworkManager uses only the DNS servers specified in the connection profile with the lowest priority.

If multiple connections have the same DNS priority, NetworkManager prioritizes the DNS in the following order:

• VPN connections
• Connection with an active default route. The active default route is the default route with the lowest metric.
• Using different DNS servers for different domains

22.2. Setting a NetworkManager-wide default DNS server priority value

NetworkManager uses the following DNS priority default values for connections:

You can override these system-wide defaults with a custom default value for IPv4 and IPv6 connections.

Edit the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file:

Add the [connection] section, if it does not exist:

Add the custom default values to the [connection] section. For example, to set the new default for both IPv4 and IPv6 to 200 , add:

You can set the parameters to a value between -2147483647 and 2147483647 . Note that setting the parameters to 0 enables the built-in defaults ( 50 for VPN connections and 100 for other connections).

22.3. Setting the DNS priority of a NetworkManager connection

If you require a specific order of DNS servers you can set priority values in connection profiles. NetworkManager uses these values to order the servers when the service creates or updates the /etc/resolv.conf file.

Note that setting DNS priorities makes only sense if you have multiple connections with different DNS servers configured. If you have only one connection with multiple DNS servers configured, manually set the DNS servers in the preferred order in the connection profile.

• The system has multiple NetworkManager connections configured.
• The system either has no dns parameter set in the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file or the parameter is set to default .

Optionally, display the available connections:

Set the ipv4.dns-priority and ipv6.dns-priority parameters. For example, to set both parameters to 10 for the Example_con_1 connection:

• Optionally, repeat the previous step for other connections.

Re-activate the connection you updated:

Display the contents of the /etc/resolv.conf file to verify that the DNS server order is correct:

Chapter 23. Using different DNS servers for different domains

By default, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) sends all DNS requests to the first DNS server specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file. If this server does not reply, RHEL uses the next server in this file. In environments where one DNS server cannot resolve all domains, administrators can configure RHEL to send DNS requests for a specific domain to a selected DNS server.

For example, you connect a server to a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and hosts in the VPN use the example.com domain. In this case, you can configure RHEL to process DNS queries in the following way:

• Send only DNS requests for example.com to the DNS server in the VPN network.
• Send all other requests to the DNS server that is configured in the connection profile with the default gateway.

23.1. Using dnsmasq in NetworkManager to send DNS requests for a specific domain to a selected DNS server

You can configure NetworkManager to start an instance of dnsmasq . This DNS caching server then listens on port 53 on the loopback device. Consequently, this service is only reachable from the local system and not from the network.

With this configuration, NetworkManager adds the nameserver 127.0.0.1 entry to the /etc/resolv.conf file, and dnsmasq dynamically routes DNS requests to the corresponding DNS servers specified in the NetworkManager connection profiles.

A DNS server and search domain are configured in the NetworkManager connection profile that is responsible for resolving a specific domain.

For example, to ensure that the DNS server specified in a VPN connection resolves queries for the example.com domain, the VPN connection profile must contain the following settings:

• A DNS server that can resolve example.com
• A search domain set to example.com in the ipv4.dns-search and ipv6.dns-search parameters
• The dnsmasq service is not running or configured to listen on a different interface then localhost .

Install the dnsmasq package:

Edit the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file, and set the following entry in the [main] section:

Search in the systemd journal of the NetworkManager unit for which domains the service uses a different DNS server:

Use the tcpdump packet sniffer to verify the correct route of DNS requests:

Install the tcpdump package:

On one terminal, start tcpdump to capture DNS traffic on all interfaces:

On a different terminal, resolve host names for a domain for which an exception exists and another domain, for example:

Verify in the tcpdump output that Red Hat Enterprise Linux sends only DNS queries for the example.com domain to the designated DNS server and through the corresponding interface:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux sends the DNS query for www.example.com to the DNS server on 198.51.100.7 and the query for www.redhat.com to 192.0.2.1 .

Verify that the nameserver entry in the /etc/resolv.conf file refers to 127.0.0.1 :

If the entry is missing, check the dns parameter in the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file.

Verify that the dnsmasq service listens on port 53 on the loopback device:

If the service does not listen on 127.0.0.1:53 , check the journal entries of the NetworkManager unit:

23.2. Using systemd-resolved in NetworkManager to send DNS requests for a specific domain to a selected DNS server

You can configure NetworkManager to start an instance of systemd-resolved . This DNS stub resolver then listens on port 53 on IP address 127.0.0.53 . Consequently, this stub resolver is only reachable from the local system and not from the network.

With this configuration, NetworkManager adds the nameserver 127.0.0.53 entry to the /etc/resolv.conf file, and systemd-resolved dynamically routes DNS requests to the corresponding DNS servers specified in the NetworkManager connection profiles.

The systemd-resolved service is provided as a Technology Preview only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production Service Level Agreements (SLAs), might not be functionally complete, and Red Hat does not recommend using them for production. These previews provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For a supported solution, see Using dnsmasq in NetworkManager to send DNS requests for a specific domain to a selected DNS server .

Enable and start the systemd-resolved service:

Display the DNS servers systemd-resolved uses and for which domains the service uses a different DNS server:

The output confirms that systemd-resolved uses different DNS servers for the example.com domain.

Verify that the nameserver entry in the /etc/resolv.conf file refers to 127.0.0.53 :

Verify that the systemd-resolved service listens on port 53 on the local IP address 127.0.0.53 :

If the service does not listen on 127.0.0.53:53 , check if the systemd-resolved service is running.

Chapter 24. Managing the default gateway setting

The default gateway is a router that forwards network packets when no other route matches the destination of a packet. In a local network, the default gateway is typically the host that is one hop closer to the internet.

24.1. Setting the default gateway on an existing connection by using nmcli

In most situations, administrators set the default gateway when they create a connection. However, you can also set or update the default gateway setting on a previously created connection by using the nmcli utility.

• At least one static IP address must be configured on the connection on which the default gateway will be set.
• If the user is logged in on a physical console, user permissions are sufficient. Otherwise, user must have root permissions.

Set the IP addresses of the default gateway:

To set the IPv4 default gateway, enter:

To set the IPv6 default gateway, enter:

Restart the network connection for changes to take effect:

All connections currently using this network connection are temporarily interrupted during the restart.

Verify that the route is active:

To display the IPv4 default gateway, enter:

To display the IPv6 default gateway, enter:

24.2. Setting the default gateway on an existing connection by using the nmcli interactive mode

In most situations, administrators set the default gateway when they create a connection. However, you can also set or update the default gateway setting on a previously created connection by using the interactive mode of the nmcli utility.

• If the user is logged in on a physical console, user permissions are sufficient. Otherwise, the user must have root permissions.

Open the nmcli interactive mode for the required connection:

Set the default gateway

Optionally, verify that the default gateway was set correctly:

Save the configuration:

Leave the nmcli interactive mode:

24.3. Setting the default gateway on an existing connection by using nm-connection-editor

In most situations, administrators set the default gateway when they create a connection. However, you can also set or update the default gateway setting on a previously created connection using the nm-connection-editor application.

• Select the connection to modify, and click the gear wheel icon to edit the existing connection.

Set the IPv4 default gateway. For example, to set the IPv4 address of the default gateway on the connection to 192.0.2.1 :

• Open the IPv4 Settings tab.

Enter the address in the gateway field next to the IP range the gateway’s address is within:

Set the IPv6 default gateway. For example, to set the IPv6 address of the default gateway on the connection to 2001:db8:1::1 :

• Open the IPv6 tab.

Restart the network connection for changes to take effect. For example, to restart the example connection using the command line:

Optionally, verify that the route is active.

To display the IPv4 default gateway:

To display the IPv6 default gateway:

• Configuring an Ethernet connection by using nm-connection-editor

24.4. Setting the default gateway on an existing connection by using control-center

In most situations, administrators set the default gateway when they create a connection. However, you can also set or update the default gateway setting on a previously created connection using the control-center application.

• The network configuration of the connection is open in the control-center application.
• Open the IPv4 tab.

Back in the Network window, disable and re-enable the connection by switching the button for the connection to Off and back to On for changes to take effect.

• Configuring an Ethernet connection by using control-center

24.5. Setting the default gateway on an existing connection by using nmstatectl

In most situations, administrators set the default gateway when they create a connection. However, you can also set or update the default gateway setting on a previously created connection by using the nmstatectl utility.

Use the nmstatectl utility to set the default gateway through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

• The enp1s0 interface is configured, and the IP address of the default gateway is within the subnet of the IP configuration of this interface.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/set-default-gateway.yml , with the following content:

These settings define 192.0.2.1 as the default gateway, and the default gateway is reachable through the enp1s0 interface.

24.6. Setting the default gateway on an existing connection by using the network RHEL system role

In most situations, administrators set the default gateway when they create a connection. However, you can also set or update the default gateway setting on a previously created connection by using the network RHEL system role to set the default gateway.

When you run a play that uses the network RHEL system role and if the setting values do not match the values specified in the play, the role overrides the existing connection profile with the same name. To prevent resetting these values to their defaults, always specify the whole configuration of the network connection profile in the play, even if the configuration, for example the IP configuration, already exists.

Depending on whether it already exists, the procedure creates or updates the enp1s0 connection profile with the following settings:

• A static IPv4 address - 198.51.100.20 with a /24 subnet mask
• An IPv4 default gateway - 198.51.100.254
• An IPv4 DNS server - 198.51.100.200

24.7. How NetworkManager manages multiple default gateways

In certain situations, for example for fallback reasons, you set multiple default gateways on a host. However, to avoid asynchronous routing issues, each default gateway of the same protocol requires a separate metric value. Note that RHEL only uses the connection to the default gateway that has the lowest metric set.

You can set the metric for both the IPv4 and IPv6 gateway of a connection using the following command:

Do not set the same metric value for the same protocol in multiple connection profiles to avoid routing issues.

If you set a default gateway without a metric value, NetworkManager automatically sets the metric value based on the interface type. For that, NetworkManager assigns the default value of this network type to the first connection that is activated, and sets an incremented value to each other connection of the same type in the order they are activated. For example, if two Ethernet connections with a default gateway exist, NetworkManager sets a metric of 100 on the route to the default gateway of the connection that you activate first. For the second connection, NetworkManager sets 101 .

The following is an overview of frequently-used network types and their default metrics:

• Configuring policy-based routing to define alternative routes

24.8. Configuring NetworkManager to avoid using a specific profile to provide a default gateway

You can configure that NetworkManager never uses a specific profile to provide the default gateway. Follow this procedure for connection profiles that are not connected to the default gateway.

• The NetworkManager connection profile for the connection that is not connected to the default gateway exists.

If the connection uses a dynamic IP configuration, configure that NetworkManager does not use the connection as the default route for IPv4 and IPv6 connections:

Note that setting ipv4.never-default and ipv6.never-default to yes , automatically removes the default gateway’s IP address for the corresponding protocol from the connection profile.

• Use the ip -4 route and ip -6 route commands to verify that RHEL does not use the network interface for the default route for the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol.

24.9. Fixing unexpected routing behavior due to multiple default gateways

There are only a few scenarios, such as when using Multipath TCP, in which you require multiple default gateways on a host. In most cases, you configure only a single default gateway to avoid unexpected routing behavior or asynchronous routing issues.

To route traffic to different internet providers, use policy-based routing instead of multiple default gateways.

• The host uses NetworkManager to manage network connections, which is the default.
• The host has multiple network interfaces.
• The host has multiple default gateways configured.

Display the routing table:

For IPv4, enter:

For IPv6, enter:

Entries starting with default indicate a default route. Note the interface names of these entries displayed next to dev .

Use the following commands to display the NetworkManager connections that use the interfaces you identified in the previous step:

In these examples, the profiles named Corporate-LAN and Internet-Provider have the default gateways set. Because, in a local network, the default gateway is typically the host that is one hop closer to the internet, the rest of this procedure assumes that the default gateways in the Corporate-LAN are incorrect.

Configure that NetworkManager does not use the Corporate-LAN connection as the default route for IPv4 and IPv6 connections:

Activate the Corporate-LAN connection:

Display the IPv4 and IPv6 routing tables and verify that only one default gateway is available for each protocol:

Chapter 25. Configuring static routes

Routing ensures that you can send and receive traffic between mutually-connected networks. In larger environments, administrators typically configure services so that routers can dynamically learn about other routers. In smaller environments, administrators often configure static routes to ensure that traffic can reach from one network to the next.

You need static routes to achieve a functioning communication among multiple networks if all of these conditions apply:

• The traffic has to pass multiple networks.
• The exclusive traffic flow through the default gateways is not sufficient.

Section 25.1, “Example of a network that requires static routes” describes scenarios and how the traffic flows between different networks when you do not configure static routes.

25.1. Example of a network that requires static routes

You require static routes in this example because not all IP networks are directly connected through one router. Without the static routes, some networks cannot communicate with each other. Additionally, traffic from some networks flows only in one direction.

The network topology in this example is artificial and only used to explain the concept of static routing. It is not a recommended topology in production environments.

For a functioning communication among all networks in this example, configure a static route to Raleigh ( 198.51.100.0/24 ) with next the hop Router 2 ( 203.0.113.10 ). The IP address of the next hop is the one of Router 2 in the data center network ( 203.0.113.0/24 ).

You can configure the static route as follows:

• For a simplified configuration, set this static route only on Router 1. However, this increases the traffic on Router 1 because hosts from the data center ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) send traffic to Raleigh ( 198.51.100.0/24 ) always through Router 1 to Router 2.
• For a more complex configuration, configure this static route on all hosts in the data center ( 203.0.113.0/24 ). All hosts in this subnet then send traffic directly to Router 2 ( 203.0.113.10 ) that is closer to Raleigh ( 198.51.100.0/24 ).

For more details between which networks traffic flows or not, see the explanations below the diagram.

In case that the required static routes are not configured , the following are the situations in which the communication works and when it does not:

Hosts in the Berlin network ( 192.0.2.0/24 ):

• Can communicate with other hosts in the same subnet because they are directly connected.
• Can communicate with the internet because Router 1 is in the Berlin network ( 192.0.2.0/24 ) and has a default gateway, which leads to the internet.
• Can communicate with the data center network ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) because Router 1 has interfaces in both the Berlin ( 192.0.2.0/24 ) and the data center ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) networks.
• Cannot communicate with the Raleigh network ( 198.51.100.0/24 ) because Router 1 has no interface in this network. Therefore, Router 1 sends the traffic to its own default gateway (internet).

Hosts in the data center network ( 203.0.113.0/24 ):

• Can communicate with the internet because they have their default gateway set to Router 1, and Router 1 has interfaces in both networks, the data center ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) and to the internet.
• Can communicate with the Berlin network ( 192.0.2.0/24 ) because they have their default gateway set to Router 1, and Router 1 has interfaces in both the data center ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) and the Berlin ( 192.0.2.0/24 ) networks.
• Cannot communicate with the Raleigh network ( 198.51.100.0/24 ) because the data center network has no interface in this network. Therefore, hosts in the data center ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) send traffic to their default gateway (Router 1). Router 1 also has no interface in the Raleigh network ( 198.51.100.0/24 ) and, as a result, Router 1 sends this traffic to its own default gateway (internet).

Hosts in the Raleigh network ( 198.51.100.0/24 ):

• Cannot communicate with hosts on the internet. Router 2 sends the traffic to Router 1 because of the default gateway settings. The actual behavior of Router 1 depends on the reverse path filter ( rp_filter ) system control ( sysctl ) setting. By default on RHEL, Router 1 drops the outgoing traffic instead of routing it to the internet. However, regardless of the configured behavior, communication is not possible without the static route.
• Cannot communicate with the data center network ( 203.0.113.0/24 ). The outgoing traffic reaches the destination through Router 2 because of the default gateway setting. However, replies to packets do not reach the sender because hosts in the data center network ( 203.0.113.0/24 ) send replies to their default gateway (Router 1). Router 1 then sends the traffic to the internet.
• Cannot communicate with the Berlin network ( 192.0.2.0/24 ). Router 2 sends the traffic to Router 1 because of the default gateway settings. The actual behavior of Router 1 depends on the rp_filter sysctl setting. By default on RHEL, Router 1 drops the outgoing traffic instead of sending it to the Berlin network ( 192.0.2.0/24 ). However, regardless of the configured behavior, communication is not possible without the static route.

In addition to configuring the static routes, you must enable IP forwarding on both routers.

• Why cannot a server be pinged if net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter is set on the server?
• Enabling IP forwarding

25.2. How to use the nmcli command to configure a static route

To configure a static route, use the nmcli utility with the following syntax:

The command supports the following route attributes:

• cwnd= n : Sets the congestion window (CWND) size, defined in number of packets.
• lock-cwnd=true|false : Defines whether or not the kernel can update the CWND value.
• lock-mtu=true|false : Defines whether or not the kernel can update the MTU to path MTU discovery.
• lock-window=true|false : Defines whether or not the kernel can update the maximum window size for TCP packets.
• mtu= n : Sets the maximum transfer unit (MTU) to use along the path to the destination.
• onlink=true|false : Defines whether the next hop is directly attached to this link even if it does not match any interface prefix.
• scope= n : For an IPv4 route, this attribute sets the scope of the destinations covered by the route prefix. Set the value as an integer (0-255).
• src= address : Sets the source address to prefer when sending traffic to the destinations covered by the route prefix.
• table= table_id : Sets the ID of the table the route should be added to. If you omit this parameter, NetworkManager uses the main table.
• tos= n : Sets the type of service (TOS) key. Set the value as an integer (0-255).
• type= value : Sets the route type. NetworkManager supports the unicast , local , blackhole , unreachable , prohibit , and throw route types. The default is unicast .
• window= n : Sets the maximal window size for TCP to advertise to these destinations, measured in bytes.

If you use the ipv4.routes sub-command, nmcli overrides all current settings of this parameter.

To add a route:

Similarly, to remove a specific route:

25.3. Configuring a static route by using nmcli

You can add a static route to an existing NetworkManager connection profile using the nmcli connection modify command.

The procedure below configures the following routes:

• An IPv4 route to the remote 198.51.100.0/24 network. The corresponding gateway with the IP address 192.0.2.10 is reachable through the example connection.
• An IPv6 route to the remote 2001:db8:2::/64 network. The corresponding gateway with the IP address 2001:db8:1::10 is reachable through the example connection.
• The example connection profile exists and it configures this host to be in the same IP subnet as the gateways.

Add the static IPv4 route to the example connection profile:

To set multiple routes in one step, pass the individual routes comma-separated to the command. For example, to add a route to the 198.51.100.0/24 and 203.0.113.0/24 networks, both routed through the 192.0.2.10 gateway, enter:

Add the static IPv6 route to the example connection profile:

Display the IPv4 routes:

Display the IPv6 routes:

25.4. Configuring a static route by using nmtui

The nmtui application provides a text-based user interface for NetworkManager. You can use nmtui to configure static routes on a host without a graphical interface.

For example, the procedure below adds a route to the 192.0.2.0/24 network that uses the gateway running on 198.51.100.1 , which is reachable through an existing connection profile.

• The network is configured.
• The gateway for the static route must be directly reachable on the interface.
• If the user is logged in on a physical console, user permissions are sufficient. Otherwise, the command requires root permissions.
• Select the connection profile through which you can reach the next hop to the destination network, and press Enter .
• Depending on whether it is an IPv4 or IPv6 route, press the Show button next to the protocol’s configuration area.

Press the Edit button next to Routing . This opens a new window where you configure static routes:

Press the Add button and fill in:

• The destination network, including the prefix in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) format
• The IP address of the next hop
• A metric value, if you add multiple routes to the same network and want to prioritize the routes by efficiency
• Repeat the previous step for every route you want to add and that is reachable through this connection profile.

Press the OK button to return to the window with the connection settings.

Figure 25.1. Example of a static route without metric

• Press the OK button to return to the nmtui main menu.
• Select Activate a connection and press Enter .

Select the connection profile that you edited, and press Enter twice to deactivate and activate it again.

Skip this step if you run nmtui over a remote connection, such as SSH, that uses the connection profile you want to reactivate. In this case, if you would deactivate it in nmtui , the connection is terminated and, consequently, you cannot activate it again. To avoid this problem, use the nmcli connection connection_profile_name up command to reactivate the connection in the mentioned scenario.

25.5. Configuring a static route by using control-center

You can use control-center in GNOME to add a static route to the configuration of a network connection.

• An IPv4 route to the remote 198.51.100.0/24 network. The corresponding gateway has the IP address 192.0.2.10 .
• An IPv6 route to the remote 2001:db8:2::/64 network. The corresponding gateway has the IP address 2001:db8:1::10 .
• This host is in the same IP subnet as the gateways.
• The network configuration of the connection is opened in the control-center application. See Configuring an Ethernet connection by using nm-connection-editor .

On the IPv4 tab:

• Optional: Disable automatic routes by clicking the On button in the Routes section of the IPv4 tab to use only static routes. If automatic routes are enabled, Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses static routes and routes received from a DHCP server.

Enter the address, netmask, gateway, and optionally a metric value of the IPv4 route:

On the IPv6 tab:

• Optional: Disable automatic routes by clicking the On button i the Routes section of the IPv4 tab to use only static routes.

Enter the address, netmask, gateway, and optionally a metric value of the IPv6 route:

Restarting the connection briefly disrupts connectivity on that interface.

25.6. Configuring a static route by using nm-connection-editor

You can use the nm-connection-editor application to add a static route to the configuration of a network connection.

• Select the example connection profile, and click the gear wheel icon to edit the existing connection.
• Click the Routes button.

Click the Add button and enter the address, netmask, gateway, and optionally a metric value.

25.7. Configuring a static route by using the nmcli interactive mode

You can use the interactive mode of the nmcli utility to add a static route to the configuration of a network connection.

Open the nmcli interactive mode for the example connection:

Add the static IPv4 route:

Add the static IPv6 route:

Optionally, verify that the routes were added correctly to the configuration:

The ip attribute displays the network to route and the nh attribute the gateway (next hop).

25.8. Configuring a static route by using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure a static route through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

• The enp1s0 network interface is configured and is in the same IP subnet as the gateways.

Create a YAML file, for example ~/add-static-route-to-enp1s0.yml , with the following content:

These settings define the following static routes:

• An IPv4 route to the remote 198.51.100.0/24 network. The corresponding gateway with the IP address 192.0.2.10 is reachable through the enp1s0 interface.
• An IPv6 route to the remote 2001:db8:2::/64 network. The corresponding gateway with the IP address 2001:db8:1::10 is reachable through the enp1s0 interface.

25.9. Configuring a static route by using the network RHEL system role

You can use the network RHEL system role to configure static routes.

Depending on whether it already exists, the procedure creates or updates the enp7s0 connection profile with the following settings:

Static routes:

• 198.51.100.0/24 with gateway 192.0.2.10
• 2001:db8:2::/64 with gateway 2001:db8:1::10

On the managed nodes:

Chapter 26. Configuring policy-based routing to define alternative routes

By default, the kernel in RHEL decides where to forward network packets based on the destination address using a routing table. Policy-based routing enables you to configure complex routing scenarios. For example, you can route packets based on various criteria, such as the source address, packet metadata, or protocol.

26.1. Routing traffic from a specific subnet to a different default gateway by using nmcli

You can use policy-based routing to configure a different default gateway for traffic from certain subnets. For example, you can configure RHEL as a router that, by default, routes all traffic to internet provider A using the default route. However, traffic received from the internal workstations subnet is routed to provider B.

The procedure assumes the following network topology:

• The system uses NetworkManager to configure the network, which is the default.

The RHEL router you want to set up in the procedure has four network interfaces:

• The enp7s0 interface is connected to the network of provider A. The gateway IP in the provider’s network is 198.51.100.2 , and the network uses a /30 network mask.
• The enp1s0 interface is connected to the network of provider B. The gateway IP in the provider’s network is 192.0.2.2 , and the network uses a /30 network mask.
• The enp8s0 interface is connected to the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet with internal workstations.
• The enp9s0 interface is connected to the 203.0.113.0/24 subnet with the company’s servers.
• Hosts in the internal workstations subnet use 10.0.0.1 as the default gateway. In the procedure, you assign this IP address to the enp8s0 network interface of the router.
• Hosts in the server subnet use 203.0.113.1 as the default gateway. In the procedure, you assign this IP address to the enp9s0 network interface of the router.
• The firewalld service is enabled and active.

Configure the network interface to provider A:

The nmcli connection add command creates a NetworkManager connection profile. The command uses the following options:

• type ethernet : Defines that the connection type is Ethernet.
• con-name <connection_name> : Sets the name of the profile. Use a meaningful name to avoid confusion.
• ifname <network_device> : Sets the network interface.
• ipv4.method manual : Enables to configure a static IP address.
• ipv4.addresses <IP_address> / <subnet_mask> : Sets the IPv4 addresses and subnet mask.
• ipv4.gateway <IP_address> : Sets the default gateway address.
• ipv4.dns <IP_of_DNS_server> : Sets the IPv4 address of the DNS server.
• connection.zone <firewalld_zone> : Assigns the network interface to the defined firewalld zone. Note that firewalld automatically enables masquerading for interfaces assigned to the external zone.

Configure the network interface to provider B:

This command uses the ipv4.routes parameter instead of ipv4.gateway to set the default gateway. This is required to assign the default gateway for this connection to a different routing table ( 5000 ) than the default. NetworkManager automatically creates this new routing table when the connection is activated.

Configure the network interface to the internal workstations subnet:

This command uses the ipv4.routes parameter to add a static route to the routing table with ID 5000 . This static route for the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet uses the IP of the local network interface to provider B ( 192.0.2.1 ) as next hop.

Additionally, the command uses the ipv4.routing-rules parameter to add a routing rule with priority 5 that routes traffic from the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet to table 5000 . Low values have a high priority.

Note that the syntax in the ipv4.routing-rules parameter is the same as in an ip rule add command, except that ipv4.routing-rules always requires specifying a priority.

Configure the network interface to the server subnet:

On a RHEL host in the internal workstation subnet:

Install the traceroute package:

Use the traceroute utility to display the route to a host on the internet:

The output of the command displays that the router sends packets over 192.0.2.1 , which is the network of provider B.

On a RHEL host in the server subnet:

The output of the command displays that the router sends packets over 198.51.100.2 , which is the network of provider A.

On the RHEL router:

Display the rule list:

By default, RHEL contains rules for the tables local , main , and default .

Display the routes in table 5000 :

Display the interfaces and firewall zones:

Verify that the external zone has masquerading enabled:

26.2. Routing traffic from a specific subnet to a different default gateway by using the network RHEL system role

To configure policy-based routing remotely and on multiple nodes, you can use the network RHEL system role.

This procedure assumes the following network topology:

• The managed nodes uses the NetworkManager and firewalld services.

The managed nodes you want to configure has four network interfaces:

On the RHEL router that you configured using the RHEL system role:

Chapter 27. Reusing the same IP address on different interfaces

With Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF), administrators can use multiple routing tables simultaneously on the same host. For that, VRF partitions a network at layer 3. This enables the administrator to isolate traffic using separate and independent route tables per VRF domain. This technique is similar to virtual LANs (VLAN), which partitions a network at layer 2, where the operating system uses different VLAN tags to isolate traffic sharing the same physical medium.

One benefit of VRF over partitioning on layer 2 is that routing scales better considering the number of peers involved.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses a virtual vrt device for each VRF domain and adds routes to a VRF domain by adding existing network devices to a VRF device. Addresses and routes previously attached to the original device will be moved inside the VRF domain.

Note that each VRF domain is isolated from each other.

27.1. Permanently reusing the same IP address on different interfaces

You can use the virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) feature to permanently use the same IP address on different interfaces in one server.

To enable remote peers to contact both VRF interfaces while reusing the same IP address, the network interfaces must belong to different broadcasting domains. A broadcast domain in a network is a set of nodes, which receive broadcast traffic sent by any of them. In most configurations, all nodes connected to the same switch belong to the same broadcasting domain.

• You are logged in as the root user.
• The network interfaces are not configured.

Create and configure the first VRF device:

Create a connection for the VRF device and assign it to a routing table. For example, to create a VRF device named vrf0 that is assigned to the 1001 routing table:

Enable the vrf0 device:

Assign a network device to the VRF just created. For example, to add the enp1s0 Ethernet device to the vrf0 VRF device and assign an IP address and the subnet mask to enp1s0 , enter:

Activate the vrf.enp1s0 connection:

Create and configure the next VRF device:

Create the VRF device and assign it to a routing table. For example, to create a VRF device named vrf1 that is assigned to the 1002 routing table, enter:

Activate the vrf1 device:

Assign a network device to the VRF just created. For example, to add the enp7s0 Ethernet device to the vrf1 VRF device and assign an IP address and the subnet mask to enp7s0 , enter:

Activate the vrf.enp7s0 device:

27.2. Temporarily reusing the same IP address on different interfaces

You can use the virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) feature to temporarily use the same IP address on different interfaces in one server. Use this procedure only for testing purposes, because the configuration is temporary and lost after you reboot the system.

To enable remote peers to contact both VRF interfaces while reusing the same IP address, the network interfaces must belong to different broadcasting domains. A broadcast domain in a network is a set of nodes which receive broadcast traffic sent by any of them. In most configurations, all nodes connected to the same switch belong to the same broadcasting domain.

Create the VRF device and assign it to a routing table. For example, to create a VRF device named blue that is assigned to the 1001 routing table:

Enable the blue device:

Assign a network device to the VRF device. For example, to add the enp1s0 Ethernet device to the blue VRF device:

Enable the enp1s0 device:

Assign an IP address and subnet mask to the enp1s0 device. For example, to set it to 192.0.2.1/24 :

Create the VRF device and assign it to a routing table. For example, to create a VRF device named red that is assigned to the 1002 routing table:

Enable the red device:

Assign a network device to the VRF device. For example, to add the enp7s0 Ethernet device to the red VRF device:

Enable the enp7s0 device:

Assign the same IP address and subnet mask to the enp7s0 device as you used for enp1s0 in the blue VRF domain:

• Optionally, create further VRF devices as described above.

27.3. Additional resources

• /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-< kernel_version >/Documentation/networking/vrf.txt from the kernel-doc package

Chapter 28. Starting a service within an isolated VRF network

With virtual routing and forwarding (VRF), you can create isolated networks with a routing table that is different to the main routing table of the operating system. You can then start services and applications so that they have only access to the network defined in that routing table.

28.1. Configuring a VRF device

To use virtual routing and forwarding (VRF), you create a VRF device and attach a physical or virtual network interface and routing information to it.

To prevent that you lock out yourself out remotely, perform this procedure on the local console or remotely over a network interface that you do not want to assign to the VRF device.

• You are logged in locally or using a network interface that is different to the one you want to assign to the VRF device.

Create the vrf0 connection with a same-named virtual device, and attach it to routing table 1000 :

Add the enp1s0 device to the vrf0 connection, and configure the IP settings:

This command creates the enp1s0 connection as a port of the vrf0 connection. Due to this configuration, the routing information are automatically assigned to the routing table 1000 that is associated with the vrf0 device.

If you require static routes in the isolated network:

Add the static routes:

This adds a route to the 198.51.100.0/24 network that uses 192.0.2.2 as the router.

Display the IP settings of the device that is associated with vrf0 :

Display the VRF devices and their associated routing table:

Display the main routing table:

The main routing table does not mention any routes associated with the device enp1s0 device or the 192.0.2.1/24 subnet.

Display the routing table 1000 :

The default entry indicates that services that use this routing table, use 192.0.2.254 as their default gateway and not the default gateway in the main routing table.

Execute the traceroute utility in the network associated with vrf0 to verify that the utility uses the route from table 1000 :

The first hop is the default gateway that is assigned to the routing table 1000 and not the default gateway from the system’s main routing table.

• ip-vrf(8) man page

28.2. Starting a service within an isolated VRF network

You can configure a service, such as the Apache HTTP Server, to start within an isolated virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) network.

Services can only bind to local IP addresses that are in the same VRF network.

• You configured the vrf0 device.
• You configured Apache HTTP Server to listen only on the IP address that is assigned to the interface associated with the vrf0 device.

Display the content of the httpd systemd service:

You require the content of the ExecStart parameter in a later step to run the same command within the isolated VRF network.

Create the /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/ directory:

Create the /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/override.conf file with the following content:

To override the ExecStart parameter, you first need to unset it and then set it to the new value as shown.

Reload systemd.

Restart the httpd service.

Display the process IDs (PID) of httpd processes:

Display the VRF association for the PIDs, for example:

Display all PIDs associated with the vrf0 device:

Chapter 29. Configuring ethtool settings in NetworkManager connection profiles

NetworkManager can configure certain network driver and hardware settings persistently. Compared to using the ethtool utility to manage these settings, this has the benefit of not losing the settings after a reboot.

You can set the following ethtool settings in NetworkManager connection profiles:

A network interface manages its associated number of channels along with hardware settings and network drivers. All devices associated with a network interface communicate with each other through interrupt requests (IRQ). Each device queue holds pending IRQ and communicates with each other over a data line known as channel. Types of queues are associated with specific channel types. These channel types include:

• rx for receiving queues
• tx for transmit queues
• other for link interrupts or single root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV) coordination
• combined for hardware capacity-based multipurpose channels

29.1. Configuring an ethtool offload feature by using nmcli

You can use NetworkManager to enable and disable ethtool offload features in a connection profile.

For example, to enable the RX offload feature and disable TX offload in the enp1s0 connection profile, enter:

This command explicitly enables RX offload and disables TX offload.

To remove the setting of an offload feature that you previously enabled or disabled, set the feature’s parameter to a null value. For example, to remove the configuration for TX offload, enter:

Reactivate the network profile:

Use the ethtool -k command to display the current offload features of a network device:

29.2. Configuring an ethtool offload feature by using the network RHEL system role

You can use the network RHEL system role to configure ethtool features of a NetworkManager connection.

This playbook creates the enp1s0 connection profile with the following settings, or updates it if the profile already exists:

ethtool features:

• Generic receive offload (GRO): disabled
• Generic segmentation offload (GSO): enabled
• TX stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) segmentation: disabled

29.3. Configuring an ethtool coalesce settings by using nmcli

You can use NetworkManager to set ethtool coalesce settings in connection profiles.

For example, to set the maximum number of received packets to delay to 128 in the enp1s0 connection profile, enter:

To remove a coalesce setting, set it to a null value. For example, to remove the ethtool.coalesce-rx-frames setting, enter:

To reactivate the network profile:

Use the ethtool -c command to display the current offload features of a network device:

29.4. Configuring an ethtool coalesce settings by using the network RHEL system role

You can use the network RHEL system role to configure ethtool coalesce settings of a NetworkManager connection.

ethtool coalesce settings:

• RX frames: 128
• TX frames: 128

29.5. Increasing the ring buffer size to reduce a high packet drop rate by using nmcli

Increase the size of an Ethernet device’s ring buffers if the packet drop rate causes applications to report a loss of data, timeouts, or other issues.

Receive ring buffers are shared between the device driver and network interface controller (NIC). The card assigns a transmit (TX) and receive (RX) ring buffer. As the name implies, the ring buffer is a circular buffer where an overflow overwrites existing data. There are two ways to move data from the NIC to the kernel, hardware interrupts and software interrupts, also called SoftIRQs.

The kernel uses the RX ring buffer to store incoming packets until the device driver can process them. The device driver drains the RX ring, typically by using SoftIRQs, which puts the incoming packets into a kernel data structure called an sk_buff or skb to begin its journey through the kernel and up to the application that owns the relevant socket.

The kernel uses the TX ring buffer to hold outgoing packets which should be sent to the network. These ring buffers reside at the bottom of the stack and are a crucial point at which packet drop can occur, which in turn will adversely affect network performance.

Display the packet drop statistics of the interface:

Note that the output of the command depends on the network card and the driver.

High values in discard or drop counters indicate that the available buffer fills up faster than the kernel can process the packets. Increasing the ring buffers can help to avoid such loss.

Display the maximum ring buffer sizes:

If the values in the Pre-set maximums section are higher than in the Current hardware settings section, you can change the settings in the next steps.

Identify the NetworkManager connection profile that uses the interface:

Update the connection profile, and increase the ring buffers:

To increase the RX ring buffer, enter:

To increase the TX ring buffer, enter:

Reload the NetworkManager connection:

Depending on the driver your NIC uses, changing in the ring buffer can shortly interrupt the network connection.

• ifconfig and ip commands report packet drops
• Should I be concerned about a 0.05% packet drop rate?
• ethtool(8) man page

29.6. Increasing the ring buffer size to reduce a high packet drop rate by using the network RHEL system role

Ring buffers are circular buffers where an overflow overwrites existing data. The network card assigns a transmit (TX) and receive (RX) ring buffer. Receive ring buffers are shared between the device driver and the network interface controller (NIC). Data can move from NIC to the kernel through either hardware interrupts or software interrupts, also called SoftIRQs.

• You know the maximum ring buffer sizes that the device supports.

Maximum number of ring buffer entries:

• Receive (RX): 4096
• Transmit (TX): 4096

29.7. Configuring an ethtool channels settings by using nmcli

By using NetworkManager, you can manage network devices and connections. The ethtool utility manages the link speed and related settings of a network interface card. ethtool handles IRQ based communication with associated devices to manage related channels settings in connection profiles.

Display the channels associated with a network device:

Update the channel settings of a network interface:

Check the updated channel settings associated with the network device:

• The nmcli(5) man page

Chapter 30. Introduction to NetworkManager Debugging

Increasing the log levels for all or certain domains helps to log more details of the operations that NetworkManager performs. You can use this information to troubleshoot problems. NetworkManager provides different levels and domains to produce logging information. The /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file is the main configuration file for NetworkManager. The logs are stored in the journal.

30.1. Introduction to NetworkManager reapply method

The NetworkManager service uses a profile to manage the connection settings of a device. Desktop Bus (D-Bus) API can create, modify, and delete these connection settings. For any changes in a profile, D-Bus API clones the existing settings to the modified settings of a connection. Despite cloning, changes do not apply to the modified settings. To make it effective, reactivate the existing settings of a connection or use the reapply() method.

The reapply() method has the following features:

• Updating modified connection settings without deactivation or restart of a network interface.
• Removing pending changes from the modified connection settings. As NetworkManager does not revert the manual changes, you can reconfigure the device and revert external or manual parameters.
• Creating different modified connection settings than that of the existing connection settings.

Also, reapply() method supports the following attributes:

• bridge.ageing-time
• bridge.forward-delay
• bridge.group-address
• bridge.group-forward-mask
• bridge.hello-time
• bridge.max-age
• bridge.multicast-hash-max
• bridge.multicast-last-member-count
• bridge.multicast-last-member-interval
• bridge.multicast-membership-interval
• bridge.multicast-querier
• bridge.multicast-querier-interval
• bridge.multicast-query-interval
• bridge.multicast-query-response-interval
• bridge.multicast-query-use-ifaddr
• bridge.multicast-router
• bridge.multicast-snooping
• bridge.multicast-startup-query-count
• bridge.multicast-startup-query-interval
• bridge.priority
• bridge.VLAN-filtering
• bridge.VLAN-protocol
• bridge.VLANs
• 802-3-ethernet.accept-all-mac-addresses
• 802-3-ethernet.cloned-mac-address
• IPv4.addresses
• IPv4.dhcp-client-id
• IPv4.dhcp-iaid
• IPv4.dhcp-timeout
• IPv4.DNS-priority
• IPv4.DNS-search
• IPv4.gateway
• IPv4.ignore-auto-DNS
• IPv4.ignore-auto-routes
• IPv4.may-fail
• IPv4.method
• IPv4.never-default
• IPv4.route-table
• IPv4.routes
• IPv4.routing-rules
• IPv6.addr-gen-mode
• IPv6.addresses
• IPv6.dhcp-duid
• IPv6.dhcp-iaid
• IPv6.dhcp-timeout
• IPv6.DNS-priority
• IPv6.DNS-search
• IPv6.gateway
• IPv6.ignore-auto-DNS
• IPv6.may-fail
• IPv6.method
• IPv6.never-default
• IPv6.ra-timeout
• IPv6.route-metric
• IPv6.route-table
• IPv6.routes
• IPv6.routing-rules

30.2. Setting the NetworkManager log level

By default, all the log domains are set to record the INFO log level. Disable rate-limiting before collecting debug logs. With rate-limiting, systemd-journald drops messages if there are too many of them in a short time. This can occur when the log level is TRACE .

This procedure disables rate-limiting and enables recording debug logs for the all (ALL) domains.

To disable rate-limiting, edit the /etc/systemd/journald.conf file, uncomment the RateLimitBurst parameter in the [Journal] section, and set its value as 0 :

Restart the systemd-journald service.

Create the /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/95-nm-debug.conf file with the following content:

The domains parameter can contain multiple comma-separated domain:level pairs.

Restart the NetworkManager service.

Query the systemd journal to display the journal entries of the NetworkManager unit:

30.3. Temporarily setting log levels at run time using nmcli

You can change the log level at run time using nmcli . However, Red Hat recommends to enable debugging using configuration files and restart NetworkManager. Updating debugging levels and domains using the .conf file helps to debug boot issues and captures all the logs from the initial state.

Optional: Display the current logging settings:

To modify the logging level and domains, use the following options:

To set the log level for all domains to the same LEVEL , enter:

To change the level for specific domains, enter:

Note that updating the logging level using this command disables logging for all the other domains.

To change the level of specific domains and preserve the level of all other domains, enter:

30.4. Viewing NetworkManager logs

You can view the NetworkManager logs for troubleshooting.

To view the logs, enter:

• journalctl(1) man page

30.5. Debugging levels and domains

You can use the levels and domains parameters to manage the debugging for NetworkManager. The level defines the verbosity level, whereas the domains define the category of the messages to record the logs with given severity ( level ).

Note that subsequent levels log all messages from earlier levels. For example, setting the log level to INFO also logs messages contained in the ERR and WARN log level.

Chapter 31. Using LLDP to debug network configuration problems

You can use the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to debug network configuration problems in the topology. This means that, LLDP can report configuration inconsistencies with other hosts or routers and switches.

31.1. Debugging an incorrect VLAN configuration using LLDP information

If you configured a switch port to use a certain VLAN and a host does not receive these VLAN packets, you can use the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to debug the problem. Perform this procedure on the host that does not receive the packets.

• The switch supports LLDP.
• LLDP is enabled on neighbor devices.

Create the ~/enable-LLDP-enp1s0.yml file with the following content:

Use the ~/enable-LLDP-enp1s0.yml file to enable LLDP on interface enp1s0 :

Display the LLDP information:

Verify the output to ensure that the settings match your expected configuration. For example, the LLDP information of the interface connected to the switch shows that the switch port this host is connected to uses VLAN ID 448 :

If the network configuration of the enp1s0 interface uses a different VLAN ID, change it accordingly.

Configuring VLAN tagging

Chapter 32. Linux traffic control

Linux offers tools for managing and manipulating the transmission of packets. The Linux Traffic Control (TC) subsystem helps in policing, classifying, shaping, and scheduling network traffic. TC also mangles the packet content during classification by using filters and actions. The TC subsystem achieves this by using queuing disciplines ( qdisc ), a fundamental element of the TC architecture.

The scheduling mechanism arranges or rearranges the packets before they enter or exit different queues. The most common scheduler is the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) scheduler. You can do the qdiscs operations temporarily using the tc utility or permanently using NetworkManager.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can configure default queueing disciplines in various ways to manage the traffic on a network interface.

32.1. Overview of queuing disciplines

Queuing disciplines ( qdiscs ) help with queuing up and, later, scheduling of traffic transmission by a network interface. A qdisc has two operations;

• enqueue requests so that a packet can be queued up for later transmission and
• dequeue requests so that one of the queued-up packets can be chosen for immediate transmission.

Every qdisc has a 16-bit hexadecimal identification number called a handle , with an attached colon, such as 1: or abcd: . This number is called the qdisc major number. If a qdisc has classes, then the identifiers are formed as a pair of two numbers with the major number before the minor, <major>:<minor> , for example abcd:1 . The numbering scheme for the minor numbers depends on the qdisc type. Sometimes the numbering is systematic, where the first-class has the ID <major>:1 , the second one <major>:2 , and so on. Some qdiscs allow the user to set class minor numbers arbitrarily when creating the class.

Different types of qdiscs exist and help in the transfer of packets to and from a networking interface. You can configure qdiscs with root, parent, or child classes. The point where children can be attached are called classes. Classes in qdisc are flexible and can always contain either multiple children classes or a single child, qdisc . There is no prohibition against a class containing a classful qdisc itself, this facilitates complex traffic control scenarios.

Classful qdiscs do not store any packets themselves. Instead, they enqueue and dequeue requests down to one of their children according to criteria specific to the qdisc . Eventually, this recursive packet passing ends up where the packets are stored (or picked up from in the case of dequeuing).

• tc(8) man page
• tc-actions(8) man page

32.2. Introduction to connection tracking

At a firewall, the Netfilter framework filters packets from an external network. After a packet arrives, Netfilter assigns a connection tracking entry. Connection tracking is a Linux kernel networking feature for logical networks that tracks connections and identifies packet flow in those connections. This feature filters and analyzes every packet, sets up the connection tracking table to store connection status, and updates the connection status based on identified packets. For example, in the case of FTP connection, Netfilter assigns a connection tracking entry to ensure all packets of FTP connection work in the same manner. The connection tracking entry stores a Netfilter mark and tracks the connection state information in the memory table in which a new packet tuple maps with an existing entry. If the packet tuple does not map with an existing entry, the packet adds a new connection tracking entry that groups packets of the same connection.

You can control and analyze traffic on the network interface. The tc traffic controller utility uses the qdisc discipline to configure the packet scheduler in the network. The qdisc kernel-configured queuing discipline enqueues packets to the interface. By using qdisc , Kernel catches all the traffic before a network interface transmits it. Also, to limit the bandwidth rate of packets belonging to the same connection, use the tc qdisc command.

To retrieve data from connection tracking marks into various fields, use the tc utility with the ctinfo module and the connmark functionality. For storing packet mark information, the ctinfo module copies the Netfilter mark and the connection state information into a socket buffer ( skb ) mark metadata field.

Transmitting a packet over a physical medium removes all the metadata of a packet. Before the packet loses its metadata, the ctinfo module maps and copies the Netfilter mark value to a specific value of the Diffserv code point (DSCP) in the packet’s IP field.

• tc(8) and tc-ctinfo(8) man pages

32.3. Inspecting qdiscs of a network interface using the tc utility

By default, Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems use fq_codel qdisc . You can inspect the qdisc counters using the tc utility.

Optional: View your current qdisc :

Inspect the current qdisc counters:

• dropped - the number of times a packet is dropped because all queues are full
• overlimits - the number of times the configured link capacity is filled
• sent - the number of dequeues

32.4. Updating the default qdisc

If you observe networking packet losses with the current qdisc , you can change the qdisc based on your network-requirements.

View the current default qdisc :

View the qdisc of current Ethernet connection:

Update the existing qdisc :

To apply the changes, reload the network driver:

Start the network interface:

View the qdisc of the Ethernet connection:

• How to set sysctl variables on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

32.5. Temporarily setting the current qdisc of a network interface using the tc utility

You can update the current qdisc without changing the default one.

Optional: View the current qdisc :

Update the current qdisc :

View the updated current qdisc :

32.6. Permanently setting the current qdisc of a network interface using NetworkManager

You can update the current qdisc value of a NetworkManager connection.

Optional: To add another qdisc over the existing qdisc , use the +tc.qdisc option:

Activate the changes:

View current qdisc the network interface:

32.7. Configuring the rate limiting of packets by using the tc-ctinfo utility

You can limit network traffic and prevent the exhaustion of resources in the network by using rate limiting. With rate limiting, you can also reduce the load on servers by limiting repetitive packet requests in a specific time frame. In addition, you can manage bandwidth rate by configuring traffic control in the kernel with the tc-ctinfo utility.

The connection tracking entry stores the Netfilter mark and connection information. When a router forwards a packet from the firewall, the router either removes or modifies the connection tracking entry from the packet. The connection tracking information ( ctinfo ) module retrieves data from connection tracking marks into various fields. This kernel module preserves the Netfilter mark by copying it into socket buffer ( skb ) mark metadata field.

• The iperf3 utility is installed on a server and a client.

Perform the following steps on the server:

Add a virtual link to the network interface:

This command has the following parameters:

Change the state of the interface:

Add the qdisc attribute on the physical network interface and apply it to the incoming traffic:

In the handle ffff: option, the handle parameter assigns the major number ffff: as a default value to a classful qdisc on the enp1s0 physical network interface, where qdisc is a queueing discipline parameter to analyze traffic control.

Add a filter on the physical interface of the ip protocol to classify packets:

This command has the following attributes:

Add a classful qdisc to the interface:

This command sets the major number 1 to root qdisc and uses the htb hierarchy token bucket with classful qdisc of minor-id 1000 .

Limit the traffic on the interface to 1 Mbit/s with an upper limit of 2 Mbit/s:

Apply the Stochastic Fairness Queuing ( sfq ) of classless qdisc to interface with a time interval of 60 seconds to reduce queue algorithm perturbation:

Add the firewall mark ( fw ) filter to the interface:

Restore the packet meta mark from the connection mark ( CONNMARK ):

In this command, the nft utility has a mangle table with the PREROUTING chain rule specification that alters incoming packets before routing to replace the packet mark with CONNMARK .

If no nft table and chain exist, create a table and add a chain rule:

Set the meta mark on tcp packets that are received on the specified destination address 192.0.2.3 :

Save the packet mark into the connection mark:

Run the iperf3 utility as the server on a system by using the -s parameter and the server then waits for the response of the client connection:

On the client, run iperf3 as a client and connect to the server that listens on IP address 192.0.2.3 for periodic HTTP request-response timestamp:

192.0.2.3 is the IP address of the server while 192.0.2.4 is the IP address of the client.

Terminate the iperf3 utility on the server by pressing Ctrl + C :

Terminate the iperf3 utility on the client by pressing Ctrl + C :

Display the statistics about packet counts of the htb and sfq classes on the interface:

Display the statistics of packet counts for the mirred and ctinfo actions:

Display the statistics of the htb rate-limiter and its configuration:

• tc(8) and tc-ctinfo(8) man page
• nft(8) man page

32.8. Available qdiscs in RHEL

Each qdisc addresses unique networking-related issues. The following is the list of qdiscs available in RHEL. You can use any of the following qdisc to shape network traffic based on your networking requirements.

Table 32.1. Available schedulers in RHEL

The qdisc offload requires hardware and driver support on NIC.

Chapter 33. Authenticating a RHEL client to the network by using the 802.1X standard with a certificate stored on the file system

Administrators frequently use port-based Network Access Control (NAC) based on the IEEE 802.1X standard to protect a network from unauthorized LAN and Wi-Fi clients. To enable a client to connect to such networks, you must configure 802.1X authentication on this clients.

33.1. Configuring 802.1X network authentication on an existing Ethernet connection by using nmcli

You can use the nmcli utility to configure an Ethernet connection with 802.1X network authentication on the command line.

• The Ethernet connection profile exists in NetworkManager and has a valid IP configuration.

The following files required for TLS authentication exist on the client:

• The client key stored is in the /etc/pki/tls/private/client.key file, and the file is owned and only readable by the root user.
• The client certificate is stored in the /etc/pki/tls/certs/client.crt file.
• The Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is stored in the /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca.crt file.

Set the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) to tls and the paths to the client certificate and key file:

Note that you must set the 802-1x.eap , 802-1x.client-cert , and 802-1x.private-key parameters in a single command.

Set the path to the CA certificate:

Set the identity of the user used in the certificate:

By default, NetworkManager stores the password in clear text in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/keys- connection_name file, that is readable only by the root user. However, clear text passwords in a configuration file can be a security risk.

33.2. Configuring a static Ethernet connection with 802.1X network authentication by using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure an Ethernet connection with 802.1X network authentication through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

The nmstate library only supports the TLS Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) method.

• The managed node uses NetworkManager.
• 802.1X network authentication using the TLS EAP protocol

33.3. Configuring a static Ethernet connection with 802.1X network authentication by using the network RHEL system role

You can remotely configure an Ethernet connection with 802.1X network authentication by using the network RHEL system role.

• The managed nodes uses NetworkManager.
• The Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is stored in the /srv/data/ca.crt file.
• 802.1X network authentication using the TLS Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)

33.4. Configuring a wifi connection with 802.1X network authentication by using the network RHEL system role

Chapter 34. setting up an 802.1x network authentication service for lan clients by using hostapd with freeradius backend.

The IEEE 802.1X standard defines secure authentication and authorization methods to protect networks from unauthorized clients. By using the hostapd service and FreeRADIUS, you can provide network access control (NAC) in your network.

In this documentation, the RHEL host acts as a bridge to connect different clients with an existing network. However, the RHEL host grants only authenticated clients access to the network.

34.1. Prerequisites

A clean installation of FreeRADIUS.

If the freeradius package is already installed, remove the /etc/raddb/ directory, uninstall and then install the package again. Do not reinstall the package by using the dnf reinstall command, because the permissions and symbolic links in the /etc/raddb/ directory are then different.

34.2. Setting up the bridge on the authenticator

A network bridge is a link-layer device which forwards traffic between hosts and networks based on a table of MAC addresses. If you set up RHEL as an 802.1X authenticator, add both the interfaces on which to perform authentication and the LAN interface to the bridge.

• The server has multiple Ethernet interfaces.

Create the bridge interface:

Assign the Ethernet interfaces to the bridge:

Enable the bridge to forward extensible authentication protocol over LAN (EAPOL) packets:

Configure the connection to automatically activate the ports:

Display the link status of Ethernet devices that are ports of a specific bridge:

Verify if forwarding of EAPOL packets is enabled on the br0 device:

If the command returns 0x8 , forwarding is enabled.

34.3. Certificate requirements by FreeRADIUS

For a secure FreeRADIUS service, you require TLS certificates for different purposes:

A TLS server certificate for encrypted connections to the server. Use a trusted certificate authority (CA) to issue the certificate.

The server certificate requires the extended key usage (EKU) field set to TLS Web Server Authentication .

Client certificates issued by the same CA for extended authentication protocol transport layer security (EAP-TLS). EAP-TLS provides certificate-based authentication and is enabled by default.

The client certificates require their EKU field set to TLS Web Client Authentication .

To secure connection, use your company’s CA or create your own CA to issue certificates for FreeRADIUS. If you use a public CA, you allow it to authenticate users and issue client certificates for EAP-TLS.

34.4. Creating a set of certificates on a FreeRADIUS server for testing purposes

For testing purposes, the freeradius package installs scripts and configuration files in the /etc/raddb/certs/ directory to create your own certificate authority (CA) and issue certificates.

If you use the default configuration, certificates generated by these scripts expire after 60 days and keys use an insecure password ("whatever"). However, you can customize the CA, server, and client configuration.

After you perform the procedure, the following files, which you require later in this documentation, are created:

• /etc/raddb/certs/ca.pem : CA certificate
• /etc/raddb/certs/server.key : Private key of the server certificate
• /etc/raddb/certs/server.pem : Server certificate
• /etc/raddb/certs/client.key : Private key of the client certificate
• /etc/raddb/certs/client.pem : Client certificate
• You installed the freeradius package.

Change into the /etc/raddb/certs/ directory:

Optional: Customize the CA configuration in the /etc/raddb/certs/ca.cnf file:

Optional: Customize the server configuration in the /etc/raddb/certs/server.cnf file::

Optional: Customize the client configuration in the /etc/raddb/certs/client.cnf file::

Create the certificates:

Change the group on the /etc/raddb/certs/server.pem file to radiusd :

• /etc/raddb/certs/README.md

34.5. Configuring FreeRADIUS to authenticate network clients securely by using EAP

FreeRADIUS supports different methods of the Extensible authentication protocol (EAP). However, for a secure network, configure FreeRADIUS to support only the following secure EAP authentication methods:

• EAP-TLS (transport layer security) uses a secure TLS connection to authenticate clients by using certificates. To use EAP-TLS, you need TLS client certificates for each network client and a server certificate for the server. Note that the same certificate authority (CA) must have issued the certificates. Always use your own CA to create certificates, because all client certificates issued by the CA you use can authenticate to your FreeRADIUS server.
• EAP-TTLS (tunneled transport layer security) uses a secure TLS connection and authenticates clients by using mechanisms, such as password authentication protocol (PAP) or challenge handshake authentication protocol (CHAP). To use EAP-TTLS, you need a TLS server certificate.
• EAP-PEAP (protected extensible authentication protocol) uses a secure TLS connection as the outer authentication protocol to set up the tunnel. The authenticator authenticates the certificate of the RADIUS server. Afterwards, the supplicant authenticates through the encrypted tunnel by using Microsoft challenge handshake authentication protocol version 2 (MS-CHAPv2) or other methods.

The default FreeRADIUS configuration files serve as documentation and describe all parameters and directives. If you want to disable certain features, comment them out instead of removing the corresponding parts in the configuration files. This enables you to preserve the structure of the configuration files and the included documentation.

• The configuration files in the /etc/raddb/ directory are unchanged and as provided by the freeradius package.

The following files exist on the server:

• TLS private key of the FreeRADIUS host: /etc/raddb/certs/server.key
• TLS server certificate of the FreeRADIUS host: /etc/raddb/certs/server.pem
• TLS CA certificate: /etc/raddb/certs/ca.pem

If you store the files in a different location or if they have different names, set the private_key_file , certificate_file , and ca_file parameters in the /etc/raddb/mods-available/eap file accordingly.

If the /etc/raddb/certs/dh with Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameters does not exist, create one. For example, to create a DH file with a 2048 bits prime, enter:

For security reasons, do not use a DH file with less than a 2048 bits prime. Depending on the number of bits, the creation of the file can take several minutes.

Set secure permissions on the TLS private key, server certificate, CA certificate, and the file with DH parameters:

Edit the /etc/raddb/mods-available/eap file:

Set the password of the private key in the private_key_password parameter:

Depending on your environment, set the default_eap_type parameter in the eap directive to your primary EAP type you use:

For a secure environment, use only ttls , tls , or peap .

Comment out the md5 directives to disable the insecure EAP-MD5 authentication method:

Note that, in the default configuration file, other insecure EAP authentication methods are commented out by default.

Edit the /etc/raddb/sites-available/default file, and comment out all authentication methods other than eap :

This leaves only EAP enabled and disables plain-text authentication methods.

Edit the /etc/raddb/clients.conf file:

Set a secure password in the localhost and localhost_ipv6 client directives:

If RADIUS clients, such as network authenticators, on remote hosts should be able to access the FreeRADIUS service, add corresponding client directives for them:

The ipaddr parameter accepts IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and you can use the optional classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) notation to specify ranges. However, you can set only one value in this parameter. For example, to grant access to an IPv4 and IPv6 address, add two client directives.

Use a descriptive name for the client directive, such as a hostname or a word that describes where the IP range is used.

If you want to use EAP-TTLS or EAP-PEAP, add the users to the /etc/raddb/users file:

For users who should use certificate-based authentication (EAP-TLS), do not add any entry.

Verify the configuration files:

Enable and start the radiusd service:

• Testing EAP-TTLS authentication against a FreeRADIUS server or authenticator
• Testing EAP-TLS authentication against a FreeRADIUS server or authenticator

Stop the radiusd service:

Start the service in debug mode:

• Perform authentication tests on the FreeRADIUS host, as referenced in the Verification section.
• Disable no longer required authentication methods and other features you do not use.

34.6. Configuring hostapd as an authenticator in a wired network

The host access point daemon ( hostapd ) service can act as an authenticator in a wired network to provide 802.1X authentication. For this, the hostapd service requires a RADIUS server that authenticates the clients.

The hostapd service provides an integrated RADIUS server. However, use the integrated RADIUS server only for testing purposes. For production environments, use FreeRADIUS server, which supports additional features, such as different authentication methods and access control.

The hostapd service does not interact with the traffic plane. The service acts only as an authenticator. For example, use a script or service that uses the hostapd control interface to allow or deny traffic based on the result of authentication events.

• You installed the hostapd package.
• The FreeRADIUS server has been configured, and it is ready to authenticate clients.

Create the /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf file with the following content:

For further details about the parameters used in this configuration, see their descriptions in the /usr/share/doc/hostapd/hostapd.conf example configuration file.

Enable and start the hostapd service:

Stop the hostapd service:

• hostapd.conf(5) man page
• /usr/share/doc/hostapd/hostapd.conf file

34.7. Testing EAP-TTLS authentication against a FreeRADIUS server or authenticator

To test if authentication by using extensible authentication protocol (EAP) over tunneled transport layer security (EAP-TTLS) works as expected, run this procedure:

• After you set up the FreeRADIUS server
• After you set up the hostapd service as an authenticator for 802.1X network authentication.

The output of the test utilities used in this procedure provide additional information about the EAP communication and help you to debug problems.

When you want to authenticate to:

A FreeRADIUS server:

• The eapol_test utility, provided by the hostapd package, is installed.
• The client, on which you run this procedure, has been authorized in the FreeRADIUS server’s client databases.
• An authenticator, the wpa_supplicant utility, provided by the same-named package, is installed.
• You stored the certificate authority (CA) certificate in the /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca.pem file.

Create the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-TTLS.conf file with the following content:

To authenticate to:

A FreeRADIUS server, enter:

The -a option defines the IP address of the FreeRADIUS server, and the -s option specifies the password for the host on which you run the command in the FreeRADIUS server’s client configuration.

An authenticator, enter:

The -i option specifies the network interface name on which wpa_supplicant sends out extended authentication protocol over LAN (EAPOL) packets.

For more debugging information, pass the -d option to the command.

• /usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file

34.8. Testing EAP-TLS authentication against a FreeRADIUS server or authenticator

To test if authentication by using extensible authentication protocol (EAP) transport layer security (EAP-TLS) works as expected, run this procedure:

• The CA that issued the client certificate is the same that issued the server certificate of the FreeRADIUS server.
• You stored the client certificate in the /etc/pki/tls/certs/client.pem file.
• You stored the private key of the client in the /etc/pki/tls/private/client.key

Create the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-TLS.conf file with the following content:

34.9. Blocking and allowing traffic based on hostapd authentication events

The hostapd service does not interact with the traffic plane. The service acts only as an authenticator. However, you can write a script to allow and deny traffic based on the result of authentication events.

This procedure is not supported and is no enterprise-ready solution. It only demonstrates how to block or allow traffic by evaluating events retrieved by hostapd_cli .

When the 802-1x-tr-mgmt systemd service starts, RHEL blocks all traffic on the listen port of hostapd except extensible authentication protocol over LAN (EAPOL) packets and uses the hostapd_cli utility to connect to the hostapd control interface. The /usr/local/bin/802-1x-tr-mgmt script then evaluates events. Depending on the different events received by hostapd_cli , the script allows or blocks traffic for MAC addresses. Note that, when the 802-1x-tr-mgmt service stops, all traffic is automatically allowed again.

Perform this procedure on the hostapd server.

• The hostapd service has been configured, and the service is ready to authenticate clients.

Create the /usr/local/bin/802-1x-tr-mgmt file with the following content:

Create the /etc/systemd/system/[email protected] systemd service file with the following content:

Reload systemd:

Enable and start the 802-1x-tr-mgmt service with the interface name hostapd is listening on:

Authenticate with a client to the network. See:

• systemd.service(5) man page

Chapter 35. Getting started with Multipath TCP

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ensures reliable delivery of the data through the internet and automatically adjusts its bandwidth in response to network load. Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is an extension to the original TCP protocol (single-path). MPTCP enables a transport connection to operate across multiple paths simultaneously, and brings network connection redundancy to user endpoint devices.

35.1. Understanding MPTCP

The Multipath TCP (MPTCP) protocol allows for simultaneous usage of multiple paths between connection endpoints. The protocol design improves connection stability and also brings other benefits compared to the single-path TCP.

In MPTCP terminology, links are considered as paths.

The following are some of the advantages of using MPTCP:

• It allows a connection to simultaneously use multiple network interfaces.
• In case a connection is bound to a link speed, the usage of multiple links can increase the connection throughput. Note, that in case of the connection is bound to a CPU, the usage of multiple links causes the connection slowdown.
• It increases the resilience to link failures.

For more details about MPTCP, we highly recommend you review the Additional resources .

• Understanding Multipath TCP: High availability for endpoints and the networking highway of the future
• RFC8684: TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses

35.2. Preparing RHEL to enable MPTCP support

By default the MPTCP support is disabled in RHEL. Enable MPTCP so that applications that support this feature can use it. Additionally, you have to configure user space applications to force use MPTCP sockets if those applications have TCP sockets by default.

The following packages are installed:

Enable MPTCP sockets in the kernel:

Start the iperf3 server, and force it to create MPTCP sockets instead of TCP sockets:

Connect the client to the server, and force it to create MPTCP sockets instead of TCP sockets:

After the connection is established, verify the ss output to see the subflow-specific status:

Verify MPTCP counters:

• tcp(7) man page
• mptcpize(8) man page

35.3. Using iproute2 to temporarily configure and enable multiple paths for MPTCP applications

Each MPTCP connection uses a single subflow similar to plain TCP. To get the MPTCP benefits, specify a higher limit for maximum number of subflows for each MPTCP connection. Then configure additional endpoints to create those subflows.

The configuration in this procedure will not persist after rebooting your machine.

Note that MPTCP does not yet support mixed IPv6 and IPv4 endpoints for the same socket. Use endpoints belonging to the same address family.

• The mptcpd package is installed
• The iperf3 package is installed

Server network interface settings:

• enp4s0: 192.0.2.1/24
• enp1s0: 198.51.100.1/24

Client network interface settings:

• enp4s0f0: 192.0.2.2/24
• enp4s0f1: 198.51.100.2/24

Configure the client to accept up to 1 additional remote address, as provided by the server:

Add IP address 198.51.100.1 as a new MPTCP endpoint on the server:

The signal option ensures that the ADD_ADDR packet is sent after the three-way-handshake.

Verify the connection is established:

Verify the connection and IP address limit:

Verify the newly added endpoint:

Verify MPTCP counters by using the nstat MPTcp* command on a server:

• ip-mptcp(8) man page

35.4. Permanently configuring multiple paths for MPTCP applications

You can configure MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) using the nmcli command to permanently establish multiple subflows between a source and destination system. The subflows can use different resources, different routes to the destination, and even different networks. Such as Ethernet, cellular, wifi, and so on. As a result, you achieve combined connections, which increase network resilience and throughput.

The server uses the following network interfaces in our example:

• enp7s0: 192.0.2.3/24

The client uses the following network interfaces in our example:

• enp6s0: 192.0.2.5/24
• You configured the default gateway on the relevant interfaces.

Optional: The RHEL kernel default for subflow limit is 2. If you require more:

Create the /etc/systemd/system/set_mptcp_limit.service file with the following content:

The oneshot unit executes the ip mptcp limits set subflows 3 command after your network ( network.target ) is operational during every boot process.

The ip mptcp limits set subflows 3 command sets the maximum number of additional subflows for each connection, so 4 in total. It is possible to add maximally 3 additional subflows.

Enable the set_mptcp_limit service:

Enable MPTCP on all connection profiles that you want to use for connection aggregation:

The connection.mptcp-flags parameter configures MPTCP endpoints and the IP address flags. If MPTCP is enabled in a NetworkManager connection profile, the setting will configure the IP addresses of the relevant network interface as MPTCP endpoints.

By default, NetworkManager does not add MPTCP flags to IP addresses if there is no default gateway. If you want to bypass that check, you need to use also the also-without-default-route flag.

Verify that you enabled the MPTCP kernel parameter:

Verify that you set the subflow limit correctly, in case the default was not enough:

Verify that you configured the per-address MPTCP setting correctly:

• nm-settings-nmcli(5)
• ip-mptcp(8)
• Section 35.1, “Understanding MPTCP”
• Using Multipath TCP to better survive outages and increase bandwidth

35.5. Monitoring MPTCP sub-flows

The life cycle of a multipath TCP (MPTCP) socket can be complex: The main MPTCP socket is created, the MPTCP path is validated, one or more sub-flows are created and eventually removed. Finally, the MPTCP socket is terminated.

The MPTCP protocol allows monitoring MPTCP-specific events related to socket and sub-flow creation and deletion, using the ip utility provided by the iproute package. This utility uses the netlink interface to monitor MPTCP events.

This procedure demonstrates how to monitor MPTCP events. For that, it simulates a MPTCP server application, and a client connects to this service. The involved clients in this example use the following interfaces and IP addresses:

• Server: 192.0.2.1
• Client (Ethernet connection): 192.0.2.2
• Client (WiFi connection): 192.0.2.3

To simplify this example, all interfaces are within the same subnet. This is not a requirement. However, it is important that routing has been configured correctly, and the client can reach the server via both interfaces.

• A RHEL client with two network interfaces, such as a laptop with Ethernet and WiFi
• The client can connect to the server via both interfaces
• A RHEL server
• Both the client and the server run RHEL 9.0 or later
• You installed the mptcpd package on both the client and the server

Set the per connection additional subflow limits to 1 on both client and server:

On the server, to simulate a MPTCP server application, start netcat ( nc ) in listen mode with enforced MPTCP sockets instead of TCP sockets:

The -k option causes that nc does not close the listener after the first accepted connection. This is required to demonstrate the monitoring of sub-flows.

On the client:

Identify the interface with the lowest metric:

The enp1s0 interface has a lower metric than wlp1s0 . Therefore, RHEL uses enp1s0 by default.

On the first terminal, start the monitoring:

On the second terminal, start a MPTCP connection to the server:

RHEL uses the enp1s0 interface and its associated IP address as a source for this connection.

On the monitoring terminal, the ip mptcp monitor command now logs:

The token identifies the MPTCP socket as an unique ID, and later it enables you to correlate MPTCP events on the same socket.

On the terminal with the running nc connection to the server, press Enter . This first data packet fully establishes the connection. Note that, as long as no data has been sent, the connection is not established.

On the monitoring terminal, ip mptcp monitor now logs:

Optional: Display the connections to port 12345 on the server:

At this point, only one connection to the server has been established.

On a third terminal, create another endpoint:

This command sets the name and IP address of the WiFi interface of the client in this command.

The locid field displays the local address ID of the new sub-flow and identifies this sub-flow even if the connection uses network address translation (NAT). The saddr4 field matches the endpoint’s IP address from the ip mptcp endpoint add command.

The command now displays two connections:

• The connection with source address 192.0.2.2 corresponds to the first MPTCP sub-flow that you established previously.
• The connection from the sub-flow over the wlp1s0 interface with source address 192.0.2.3 .

On the third terminal, delete the endpoint:

Use the ID from the locid field from the ip mptcp monitor output, or retrieve the endpoint ID using the ip mptcp endpoint show command.

On the first terminal with the nc client, press Ctrl + C to terminate the session.

• ip-mptcp(1) man page
• How NetworkManager manages multiple default gateways

35.6. Disabling Multipath TCP in the kernel

You can explicitly disable the MPTCP option in the kernel.

Disable the mptcp.enabled option.

Verify whether the mptcp.enabled is disabled in the kernel.

Chapter 36. Managing the mptcpd service

This section describes the basic management of the mptcpd service. The mptcpd package provides the mptcpize tool, which switches on the mptcp protocol in the TCP environment.

36.1. Configuring mptcpd

The mptcpd service is a component of the mptcp protocol which provides an instrument to configure mptcp endpoints. The mptcpd service creates a subflow endpoint for each address by default. The endpoint list is updated dynamically according to IP addresses modification on the running host. The mptcpd service creates the list of endpoints automatically. It enables multiple paths as an alternative to using the ip utility.

• The mptcpd package installed

Enable mptcp.enabled option in the kernel with the following command:

Start the mptcpd service:

Verify endpoint creation:

To stop the mptcpd service, use the following command:

• To configure mptcpd service manually, modify the /etc/mptcpd/mptcpd.conf configuration file.

Note, that the endpoint, which mptcpd service creates, lasts till the host shutdown.

• mptcpd(8) man page.

36.2. Managing applications with mptcpize tool

Using the mptcpize tool manage applications and services.

The instruction below shows how to use the mptcpize tool to manage applications in the TCP environment.

Assuming, you need to run the iperf3 utility with the enabled MPTCP socket. You can achieve this goal by following the procedure below.

Start iperf3 utility with MPTCP sockets enabled:

36.3. Enabling MPTCP sockets for a services using the mptcpize utility

The following set of commands instruct you how to manage services using the mptcpize tool. You can enable or disable the mptcp socket for a service.

Assuming, you need to manage mptcp socket for the nginx service. You can achieve this goal by following the procedure below.

• The nginx package is installed

Enable MPTCP sockets for a service:

Disable the MPTCP sockets for a service:

Restart the service to make the changes to take effect:

Chapter 37. NetworkManager connection profiles in keyfile format

By default, NetworkManager in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and later stores connection profiles in keyfile format. Unlike the deprecated ifcfg format, the keyfile format supports all connection settings that NetworkManager provides.

37.1. The keyfile format of NetworkManager profiles

The keyfile format is similar to the INI format. For example, the following is an Ethernet connection profile in keyfile format:

Typos or incorrect placements of parameters can lead to unexpected behavior. Therefore, do not manually edit or create NetworkManager profiles.

Use the nmcli utility, the network RHEL system role, or the nmstate API to manage NetworkManager connections. For example, you can use the nmcli utility in offline mode to create connection profiles.

Each section corresponds to a NetworkManager setting name as described in the nm-settings(5) and nm-settings-keyfile(5) man pages. Each key-value-pair in a section is one of the properties listed in the settings specification of the man page.

Most variables in NetworkManager keyfiles have a one-to-one mapping. This means that a NetworkManager property is stored in the keyfile as a variable of the same name and in the same format. However, there are exceptions, mainly to make the keyfile syntax easier to read. For a list of these exceptions, see the nm-settings-keyfile(5) man page.

For security reasons, because connection profiles can contain sensitive information, such as private keys and passphrases, NetworkManager uses only configuration files owned by the root user and that are only readable and writable by root .

Depending on the purpose of the connection profile, save it in one of the following directories:

• /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ : The location of persistent profiles. If you modify a persistent profile by using the NetworkManager API, NetworkManager writes and overwrites files in this directory.
• /run/NetworkManager/system-connections/ : For temporary profiles that are automatically removed when you reboot the system.
• /usr/lib/NetworkManager/system-connections/ : For pre-deployed immutable profiles. When you edit such a profile using the NetworkManager API, NetworkManager copies this profile to either the persistent or temporary storage.

NetworkManager does not automatically reload profiles from disk. When you create or update a connection profile in keyfile format, use the nmcli connection reload command to inform NetworkManager about the changes.

37.2. Using nmcli to create keyfile connection profiles in offline mode

Use NetworkManager utilities, such as nmcli , the network RHEL system role, or the nmstate API to manage NetworkManager connections, to create and update configuration files. However, you can also create various connection profiles in the keyfile format in offline mode using the nmcli --offline connection add command.

The offline mode ensures that nmcli operates without the NetworkManager service to produce keyfile connection profiles through standard output. This feature can be useful if:

• You want to create your connection profiles that need to be pre-deployed somewhere. For example in a container image, or as an RPM package.
• You want to create your connection profiles in an environment where the NetworkManager service is not available. For example when you want to use the chroot utility. Alternatively, when you want to create or modify the network configuration of the RHEL system to be installed through the Kickstart %post script.

You can create the following connection profile types:

• static Ethernet connection
• dynamic Ethernet connection
• network bond
• network bridge
• VLAN or any kind of supported connections

Create a new connection profile in the keyfile format. For example, for a connection profile of an Ethernet device that does not use DHCP, run a similar nmcli command:

The connection name you specified with the con-name key is saved into the id variable of the generated profile. When you use the nmcli command to manage this connection later, specify the connection as follows:

• When the id variable is not omitted, use the connection name, for example Example-Connection .
• When the id variable is omitted, use the file name without the .nmconnection suffix, for example output .

Set permissions to the configuration file so that only the root user can read and update it:

Start the NetworkManager service:

If you set the autoconnect variable in the profile to false , activate the connection:

Verify that the NetworkManager service is running:

Verify that NetworkManager can read the profile from the configuration file:

If the output does not show the newly created connection, verify that the keyfile permissions and the syntax you used are correct.

Display the connection profile:

• nm-settings-keyfile(5)
• The keyfile format of NetworkManager profiles
• Configuring an Ethernet connection by using nmcli

37.3. Manually creating a NetworkManager profile in keyfile format

You can manually create a NetworkManager connection profile in keyfile format.

Manually creating or updating the configuration files can result in an unexpected or non-functional network configuration. As an alternative, you can use nmcli in offline mode. See Using nmcli to create keyfile connection profiles in offline mode

If you create a profile for a hardware interface, such as Ethernet, display the MAC address of this interface:

Create a connection profile. For example, for a connection profile of an Ethernet device that uses DHCP, create the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/example.nmconnection file with the following content:

You can use any file name with a .nmconnection suffix. However, when you later use nmcli commands to manage the connection, you must use the connection name set in the id variable when you refer to this connection. When you omit the id variable, use the file name without the .nmconnection to refer to this connection.

Set permissions on the configuration file so that only the root user can read and update it:

Reload the connection profiles:

Verify that NetworkManager read the profile from the configuration file:

If the command does not show the newly added connection, verify that the file permissions and the syntax you used in the file are correct.

• nm-settings-keyfile (5)

37.4. The differences in interface renaming with profiles in ifcfg and keyfile format

You can define custom network interface names, such as provider or lan to make interface names more descriptive. In this case, the udev service renames the interfaces. The renaming process works differently depending on whether you use connection profiles in ifcfg or keyfile format.

• The /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-net.rules udev rule calls the /lib/udev/rename_device helper utility.
• The helper utility searches for the HWADDR parameter in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* files.
• If the value set in the variable matches the MAC address of an interface, the helper utility renames the interface to the name set in the DEVICE parameter of the file.
• Create a systemd link file or a udev rule to rename an interface.
• Use the custom interface name in the interface-name property of a NetworkManager connection profile.
• Configuring user-defined network interface names by using udev rules
• Configuring user-defined network interface names by using systemd link files

37.5. Migrating NetworkManager profiles from ifcfg to keyfile format

If you still use connection profiles in the deprecated ifcfg format, you can convert them to the keyfile format.

If an ifcfg file contains the NM_CONTROLLED=no setting, NetworkManager does not control this profile and, consequently the migration process ignores it.

• You have connection profiles in ifcfg format in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory.
• If the connection profiles contain a DEVICE variable that is set to a custom device name, such as provider or lan , you created a systemd link file or a udev rule for each of the custom device names.

Migrate the connection profiles:

Optionally, you can verify that you successfully migrated all your connection profiles:

• nm-settings-ifcfg-rh(5)

Chapter 38. Systemd network targets and services

NetworkManager configures the network during the system boot process. However, when booting with a remote root (/), such as if the root directory is stored on an iSCSI device, the network settings are applied in the initial RAM disk ( initrd ) before RHEL is started. For example, if the network configuration is specified on the kernel command line using rd.neednet=1 or a configuration is specified to mount remote file systems, then the network settings are applied on initrd .

RHEL uses the network and network-online targets and the NetworkManager-wait-online service while applying network settings. Also, you can configure systemd services to start after the network is fully available if these services cannot dynamically reload.

38.1. Differences between the network and network-online systemd target

Systemd maintains the network and network-online target units. The special units such as NetworkManager-wait-online.service , have WantedBy=network-online.target and Before=network-online.target parameters. If enabled, these units get started with network-online.target and delay the target to be reached until some form of network connectivity is established. They delay the network-online target until the network is connected.

The network-online target starts a service, which adds substantial delays to further execution. Systemd automatically adds dependencies with Wants and After parameters for this target unit to all the System V (SysV) init script service units with a Linux Standard Base (LSB) header referring to the $network facility. The LSB header is metadata for init scripts. You can use it to specify dependencies. This is similar to the systemd target.

The network target does not significantly delay the execution of the boot process. Reaching the network target means that the service that is responsible for setting up the network has started. However, it does not mean that a network device was configured. This target is important during the shutdown of the system. For example, if you have a service that was ordered after the network target during bootup, then this dependency is reversed during the shutdown. The network does not get disconnected until your service has been stopped. All mount units for remote network file systems automatically start the network-online target unit and order themselves after it.

The network-online target unit is only useful during the system starts. After the system has completed booting up, this target does not track the online state of the network. Therefore, you cannot use network-online to monitor the network connection. This target provides a one-time system startup concept.

38.2. Overview of NetworkManager-wait-online

The NetworkManager-wait-online service waits with a timeout for the network to be configured. This network configuration involves plugging-in an Ethernet device, scanning for a Wi-Fi device, and so forth. NetworkManager automatically activates suitable profiles that are configured to start automatically. The failure of the automatic activation process due to a DHCP timeout or similar event might keep NetworkManager busy for an extended period of time. Depending on the configuration, NetworkManager retries activating the same profile or a different profile.

When the startup completes, either all profiles are in a disconnected state or are successfully activated. You can configure profiles to auto-connect. The following are a few examples of parameters that set timeouts or define when the connection is considered active:

• connection.wait-device-timeout - sets the timeout for the driver to detect the device
• ipv4.may-fail and ipv6.may-fail - sets activation with one IP address family ready, or whether a particular address family must have completed configuration.
• ipv4.gateway-ping-timeout - delays activation.

38.3. Configuring a systemd service to start after the network has been started

Red Hat Enterprise Linux installs systemd service files in the /usr/lib/systemd/system/ directory. This procedure creates a drop-in snippet for a service file in /etc/systemd/system/ service_name .service.d/ that is used together with the service file in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ to start a particular service after the network is online. It has a higher priority if settings in the drop-in snippet overlap with the ones in the service file in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ .

To open the service file in the editor, enter:

Enter the following, and save the changes:

Reload the systemd service.

Chapter 39. Introduction to Nmstate

Nmstate is a declarative network manager API. The nmstate package provides the libnmstate Python library and a command-line utility, nmstatectl , to manage NetworkManager on RHEL. When you use Nmstate, you describe the expected networking state using YAML or JSON-formatted instructions.

Nmstate has many benefits. For example, it:

• Provides a stable and extensible interface to manage RHEL network capabilities
• Supports atomic and transactional operations at the host and cluster level
• Supports partial editing of most properties and preserves existing settings that are not specified in the instructions
• Provides plug-in support to enable administrators to use their own plug-ins

39.1. Using the libnmstate library in a Python application

The libnmstate Python library enables developers to use Nmstate in their own application

To use the library, import it in your source code:

Note that you must install the nmstate package to use this library.

Example 39.1. Querying the network state using the libnmstate library

The following Python code imports the libnmstate library and displays the available network interfaces and their state:

39.2. Updating the current network configuration using nmstatectl

You can use the nmstatectl utility to store the current network configuration of one or all interfaces in a file. You can then use this file to:

• Modify the configuration and apply it to the same system.
• Copy the file to a different host and configure the host with the same or modified settings.

For example, you can export the settings of the enp1s0 interface to a file, modify the configuration, and apply the settings to the host.

Export the settings of the enp1s0 interface to the ~/network-config.yml file:

This command stores the configuration of enp1s0 in YAML format. To store the output in JSON format, pass the --json option to the command.

If you do not specify an interface name, nmstatectl exports the configuration of all interfaces.

• Modify the ~/network-config.yml file using a text editor to update the configuration.

Apply the settings from the ~/network-config.yml file:

If you exported the settings in JSON format, pass the --json option to the command.

39.3. The nmstate systemd service

You can automatically apply new network settings when the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system boots by configuring the nmstate systemd service.

With the nmstate package installed, you can store *.yml files with Nmstate instructions in the /etc/nmstate/ directory. The nmstate service then automatically applies the files on the next reboot or when you manually restart the service. After Nmstate successfully applies a file, it renames the file’s .yml suffix to .applied to prevent the service from processing the same file again.

The nmstate service is a oneshot systemd service. Consequently, systemd executes it only when the system boots and when you manually restart the service.

By default, the nmstate service is disabled. Use the systemctl enable nmstate command to enable it. Afterwards, systemd executes this service each time when the system starts.

39.4. Network states for the network RHEL System role

The network RHEL system role supports state configurations in playbooks to configure the devices. For this, use the network_state variable followed by the state configurations.

Benefits of using the network_state variable in a playbook:

• Using the declarative method with the state configurations, you can configure interfaces, and the NetworkManager creates a profile for these interfaces in the background.
• With the network_state variable, you can specify the options that you require to change, and all the other options will remain the same as they are. However, with the network_connections variable, you must specify all settings to change the network connection profile.

For example, to create an Ethernet connection with dynamic IP address settings, use the following vars block in your playbook:

For example, to only change the connection status of dynamic IP address settings that you created as above, use the following vars block in your playbook:

39.5. Additional resources

• /usr/share/doc/nmstate/README.md
• /usr/share/doc/nmstate/examples/

Chapter 40. Capturing network packets

To debug network issues and communications, you can capture network packets. The following sections provide instructions and additional information about capturing network packets.

40.1. Using xdpdump to capture network packets including packets dropped by XDP programs

The xdpdump utility captures network packets. Unlike the tcpdump utility, xdpdump uses an extended Berkeley Packet Filter(eBPF) program for this task. This enables xdpdump to also capture packets dropped by Express Data Path (XDP) programs. User-space utilities, such as tcpdump , are not able to capture these dropped packages, as well as original packets modified by an XDP program.

You can use xdpdump to debug XDP programs that are already attached to an interface. Therefore, the utility can capture packets before an XDP program is started and after it has finished. In the latter case, xdpdump also captures the XDP action. By default, xdpdump captures incoming packets at the entry of the XDP program.

On other architectures than AMD and Intel 64-bit, the xdpdump utility is provided as a Technology Preview only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production Service Level Agreements (SLAs), might not be functionally complete, and Red Hat does not recommend using them for production. These previews provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

Note that xdpdump has no packet filter or decode capabilities. However, you can use it in combination with tcpdump for packet decoding.

• A network driver that supports XDP programs.
• An XDP program is loaded to the enp1s0 interface. If no program is loaded, xdpdump captures packets in a similar way tcpdump does, for backward compatibility.

To capture packets on the enp1s0 interface and write them to the /root/capture.pcap file, enter:

• To stop capturing packets, press Ctrl + C .
• xdpdump(8) man page
• If you are a developer and you are interested in the source code of xdpdump , download and install the corresponding source RPM (SRPM) from the Red Hat Customer Portal.

40.2. Additional resources

• How to capture network packets with tcpdump?

Chapter 41. Understanding the eBPF networking features in RHEL 9

The extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) is an in-kernel virtual machine that allows code execution in the kernel space. This code runs in a restricted sandbox environment with access only to a limited set of functions.

In networking, you can use eBPF to complement or replace kernel packet processing. Depending on the hook you use, eBPF programs have, for example:

• Read and write access to packet data and metadata
• Can look up sockets and routes
• Can set socket options
• Can redirect packets

41.1. Overview of networking eBPF features in RHEL 9

You can attach extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) networking programs to the following hooks in RHEL:

• eXpress Data Path (XDP): Provides early access to received packets before the kernel networking stack processes them.
• tc eBPF classifier with direct-action flag: Provides powerful packet processing on ingress and egress.
• Control Groups version 2 (cgroup v2): Enables filtering and overriding socket-based operations performed by programs in a control group.
• Socket filtering: Enables filtering of packets received from sockets. This feature was also available in the classic Berkeley Packet Filter (cBPF), but has been extended to support eBPF programs.
• Stream parser: Enables splitting up streams to individual messages, filtering, and redirecting them to sockets.
• SO_REUSEPORT socket selection: Provides a programmable selection of a receiving socket from a reuseport socket group.
• Flow dissector: Enables overriding the way the kernel parses packet headers in certain situations.
• TCP congestion control callbacks: Enables implementing a custom TCP congestion control algorithm.
• Routes with encapsulation: Enables creating custom tunnel encapsulation.

You can attach programs of the BPF_PROG_TYPE_XDP type to a network interface. The kernel then executes the program on received packets before the kernel network stack starts processing them. This allows fast packet forwarding in certain situations, such as fast packet dropping to prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and fast packet redirects for load balancing scenarios.

You can also use XDP for different forms of packet monitoring and sampling. The kernel allows XDP programs to modify packets and to pass them for further processing to the kernel network stack.

The following XDP modes are available:

• Native (driver) XDP: The kernel executes the program from the earliest possible point during packet reception. At this moment, the kernel did not parse the packet and, therefore, no metadata provided by the kernel is available. This mode requires that the network interface driver supports XDP but not all drivers support this native mode.
• Generic XDP: The kernel network stack executes the XDP program early in the processing. At that time, kernel data structures have been allocated, and the packet has been pre-processed. If a packet should be dropped or redirected, it requires a significant overhead compared to the native mode. However, the generic mode does not require network interface driver support and works with all network interfaces.
• Offloaded XDP: The kernel executes the XDP program on the network interface instead of on the host CPU. Note that this requires specific hardware, and only certain eBPF features are available in this mode.

On RHEL, load all XDP programs using the libxdp library. This library enables system-controlled usage of XDP.

Currently, there are some system configuration limitations for XDP programs. For example, you must disable certain hardware offload features on the receiving interface. Additionally, not all features are available with all drivers that support the native mode.

In RHEL 9, Red Hat supports the XDP features only if you use the libxdp library to load the program into the kernel.

Using an XDP program that filters and redirects packets to a given AF_XDP socket, you can use one or more sockets from the AF_XDP protocol family to quickly copy packets from the kernel to the user space.

Traffic Control

The Traffic Control ( tc ) subsystem offers the following types of eBPF programs:

• BPF_PROG_TYPE_SCHED_CLS
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_SCHED_ACT

These types enable you to write custom tc classifiers and tc actions in eBPF. Together with the parts of the tc ecosystem, this provides the ability for powerful packet processing and is the core part of several container networking orchestration solutions.

In most cases, only the classifier is used, as with the direct-action flag, the eBPF classifier can execute actions directly from the same eBPF program. The clsact Queueing Discipline ( qdisc ) has been designed to enable this on the ingress side.

Note that using a flow dissector eBPF program can influence operation of some other qdiscs and tc classifiers, such as flower .

Socket filter

Several utilities use or have used the classic Berkeley Packet Filter (cBPF) for filtering packets received on a socket. For example, the tcpdump utility enables the user to specify expressions, which tcpdump then translates into cBPF code.

As an alternative to cBPF, the kernel allows eBPF programs of the BPF_PROG_TYPE_SOCKET_FILTER type for the same purpose.

Control Groups

In RHEL, you can use multiple types of eBPF programs that you can attach to a cgroup. The kernel executes these programs when a program in the given cgroup performs an operation. Note that you can use only cgroups version 2.

The following networking-related cgroup eBPF programs are available in RHEL:

• BPF_PROG_TYPE_SOCK_OPS : The kernel calls this program on various TCP events. The program can adjust the behavior of the kernel TCP stack, including custom TCP header options, and so on.
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SOCK_ADDR : The kernel calls this program during connect , bind , sendto , recvmsg , getpeername , and getsockname operations. This program allows changing IP addresses and ports. This is useful when you implement socket-based network address translation (NAT) in eBPF.
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SOCKOPT : The kernel calls this program during setsockopt and getsockopt operations and allows changing the options.
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SOCK : The kernel calls this program during socket creation, socket releasing, and binding to addresses. You can use these programs to allow or deny the operation, or only to inspect socket creation for statistics.
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SKB : This program filters individual packets on ingress and egress, and can accept or reject packets.
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_CGROUP_SYSCTL : This program allows filtering of access to system controls ( sysctl ).

Stream Parser

A stream parser operates on a group of sockets that are added to a special eBPF map. The eBPF program then processes packets that the kernel receives or sends on those sockets.

The following stream parser eBPF programs are available in RHEL:

• BPF_PROG_TYPE_SK_SKB : An eBPF program parses packets received from the socket into individual messages, and instructs the kernel to drop those messages or send them to another socket in the group.
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_SK_MSG : This program filters egress messages. An eBPF program parses the packets into individual messages and either approves or rejects them.

SO_REUSEPORT socket selection

Using this socket option, you can bind multiple sockets to the same IP address and port. Without eBPF, the kernel selects the receiving socket based on a connection hash. With the BPF_PROG_TYPE_SK_REUSEPORT program, the selection of the receiving socket is fully programmable.

Flow dissector

When the kernel needs to process packet headers without going through the full protocol decode, they are dissected . For example, this happens in the tc subsystem, in multipath routing, in bonding, or when calculating a packet hash. In this situation the kernel parses the packet headers and fills internal structures with the information from the packet headers. You can replace this internal parsing using the BPF_PROG_TYPE_FLOW_DISSECTOR program. Note that you can only dissect TCP and UDP over IPv4 and IPv6 in eBPF in RHEL.

TCP Congestion Control

You can write a custom TCP congestion control algorithm using a group of BPF_PROG_TYPE_STRUCT_OPS programs that implement struct tcp_congestion_oops callbacks. An algorithm that is implemented this way is available to the system alongside the built-in kernel algorithms.

Routes with encapsulation

You can attach one of the following eBPF program types to routes in the routing table as a tunnel encapsulation attribute:

• BPF_PROG_TYPE_LWT_IN
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_LWT_OUT
• BPF_PROG_TYPE_LWT_XMIT

The functionality of such an eBPF program is limited to specific tunnel configurations and does not allow creating a generic encapsulation or decapsulation solution.

Socket lookup

To bypass limitations of the bind system call, use an eBPF program of the BPF_PROG_TYPE_SK_LOOKUP type. Such programs can select a listening socket for new incoming TCP connections or an unconnected socket for UDP packets.

41.2. Overview of XDP features in RHEL 9 by network cards

The following is an overview of XDP-enabled network cards and the XDP features you can use with them:

• Basic: Supports basic return codes: DROP , PASS , ABORTED , and TX .
• Redirect: Supports the XDP_REDIRECT return code.
• Target: Can be a target of a XDP_REDIRECT return code.
• HW offload: Supports XDP hardware offload.
• Zero-copy: Supports the zero-copy mode for the AF_XDP protocol family.
• Large MTU: Supports packets larger than page size.

Chapter 42. Network tracing using the BPF compiler collection

BPF Compiler Collection (BCC) is a library, which facilitates the creation of the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) programs. The main utility of eBPF programs is analyzing the operating system performance and network performance without experiencing overhead or security issues.

BCC removes the need for users to know deep technical details of eBPF, and provides many out-of-the-box starting points, such as the bcc-tools package with pre-created eBPF programs.

The eBPF programs are triggered on events, such as disk I/O, TCP connections, and process creations. It is unlikely that the programs should cause the kernel to crash, loop or become unresponsive because they run in a safe virtual machine in the kernel.

42.1. Installing the bcc-tools package

Install the bcc-tools package, which also installs the BPF Compiler Collection (BCC) library as a dependency.

Install bcc-tools .

The BCC tools are installed in the /usr/share/bcc/tools/ directory.

Optionally, inspect the tools:

The doc directory in the listing above contains documentation for each tool.

42.2. Displaying TCP connections added to the Kernel’s accept queue

After the kernel receives the ACK packet in a TCP 3-way handshake, the kernel moves the connection from the SYN queue to the accept queue after the connection’s state changes to ESTABLISHED . Therefore, only successful TCP connections are visible in this queue.

The tcpaccept utility uses eBPF features to display all connections the kernel adds to the accept queue. The utility is lightweight because it traces the accept() function of the kernel instead of capturing packets and filtering them. For example, use tcpaccept for general troubleshooting to display new connections the server has accepted.

Enter the following command to start the tracing the kernel accept queue:

Each time the kernel accepts a connection, tcpaccept displays the details of the connections.

• Press Ctrl + C to stop the tracing process.
• tcpaccept(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpaccept_example.txt file

42.3. Tracing outgoing TCP connection attempts

The tcpconnect utility uses eBPF features to trace outgoing TCP connection attempts. The output of the utility also includes connections that failed.

The tcpconnect utility is lightweight because it traces, for example, the connect() function of the kernel instead of capturing packets and filtering them.

Enter the following command to start the tracing process that displays all outgoing connections:

Each time the kernel processes an outgoing connection, tcpconnect displays the details of the connections.

• tcpconnect(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpconnect_example.txt file

42.4. Measuring the latency of outgoing TCP connections

The TCP connection latency is the time taken to establish a connection. This typically involves the kernel TCP/IP processing and network round trip time, and not the application runtime.

The tcpconnlat utility uses eBPF features to measure the time between a sent SYN packet and the received response packet.

Start measuring the latency of outgoing connections:

Each time the kernel processes an outgoing connection, tcpconnlat displays the details of the connection after the kernel receives the response packet.

• tcpconnlat(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpconnlat_example.txt file

42.5. Displaying details about TCP packets and segments that were dropped by the kernel

The tcpdrop utility enables administrators to display details about TCP packets and segments that were dropped by the kernel. Use this utility to debug high rates of dropped packets that can cause the remote system to send timer-based retransmits. High rates of dropped packets and segments can impact the performance of a server.

Instead of capturing and filtering packets, which is resource-intensive, the tcpdrop utility uses eBPF features to retrieve the information directly from the kernel.

Enter the following command to start displaying details about dropped TCP packets and segments:

Each time the kernel drops TCP packets and segments, tcpdrop displays the details of the connection, including the kernel stack trace that led to the dropped package.

• tcpdrop(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpdrop_example.txt file

42.6. Tracing TCP sessions

The tcplife utility uses eBPF to trace TCP sessions that open and close, and prints a line of output to summarize each one. Administrators can use tcplife to identify connections and the amount of transferred traffic.

For example, you can display connections to port 22 (SSH) to retrieve the following information:

• The local process ID (PID)
• The local process name
• The local IP address and port number
• The remote IP address and port number
• The amount of received and transmitted traffic in KB.
• The time in milliseconds the connection was active

Enter the following command to start the tracing of connections to the local port 22 :

Each time a connection is closed, tcplife displays the details of the connections.

• tcplife(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcplife_example.txt file

42.7. Tracing TCP retransmissions

The tcpretrans utility displays details about TCP retransmissions, such as the local and remote IP address and port number, as well as the TCP state at the time of the retransmissions.

The utility uses eBPF features and, therefore, has a very low overhead.

Use the following command to start displaying TCP retransmission details:

Each time the kernel calls the TCP retransmit function, tcpretrans displays the details of the connection.

• tcpretrans(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpretrans_example.txt file

42.8. Displaying TCP state change information

During a TCP session, the TCP state changes. The tcpstates utility uses eBPF functions to trace these state changes, and prints details including the duration in each state. For example, use tcpstates to identify if connections spend too much time in the initialization state.

Use the following command to start tracing TCP state changes:

Each time a connection changes its state, tcpstates displays a new line with updated connection details.

If multiple connections change their state at the same time, use the socket address in the first column ( SKADDR ) to determine which entries belong to the same connection.

• tcpstates(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpstates_example.txt file

42.9. Summarizing and aggregating TCP traffic sent to specific subnets

The tcpsubnet utility summarizes and aggregates IPv4 TCP traffic that the local host sends to subnets and displays the output on a fixed interval. The utility uses eBPF features to collect and summarize the data to reduce the overhead.

By default, tcpsubnet summarizes traffic for the following subnets:

• 127.0.0.1/32
• 172.16.0.0/12
• 192.0.2.0/24/16

Note that the last subnet ( 0.0.0.0/0 ) is a catch-all option. The tcpsubnet utility counts all traffic for subnets different than the first four in this catch-all entry.

Follow the procedure to count the traffic for the 192.0.2.0/24 and 198.51.100.0/24 subnets. Traffic to other subnets will be tracked in the 0.0.0.0/0 catch-all subnet entry.

Start monitoring the amount of traffic send to the 192.0.2.0/24 , 198.51.100.0/24 , and other subnets:

This command displays the traffic in bytes for the specified subnets once per second.

• tcpsubnet(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcpsubnet.txt file

42.10. Displaying the network throughput by IP address and port

The tcptop utility displays TCP traffic the host sends and receives in kilobytes. The report automatically refreshes and contains only active TCP connections. The utility uses eBPF features and, therefore, has only a very low overhead.

To monitor the sent and received traffic, enter:

The output of the command includes only active TCP connections. If the local or remote system closes a connection, the connection is no longer visible in the output.

• tcptop(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcptop.txt file

42.11. Tracing established TCP connections

The tcptracer utility traces the kernel functions that connect, accept, and close TCP connections. The utility uses eBPF features and, therefore, has a very low overhead.

Use the following command to start the tracing process:

Each time the kernel connects, accepts, or closes a connection, tcptracer displays the details of the connections.

• tcptracer(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/tcptracer_example.txt file

42.12. Tracing IPv4 and IPv6 listen attempts

The solisten utility traces all IPv4 and IPv6 listen attempts. It traces the listen attempts including that ultimately fail or the listening program that does not accept the connection. The utility traces function that the kernel calls when a program wants to listen for TCP connections.

Enter the following command to start the tracing process that displays all listen TCP attempts:

• solisten(9) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/solisten_example.txt file

42.13. Summarizing the service time of soft interrupts

The softirqs utility summarizes the time spent servicing soft interrupts (soft IRQs) and shows this time as either totals or histogram distributions. This utility uses the irq:softirq_enter and irq:softirq_exit kernel tracepoints, which is a stable tracing mechanism.

Enter the following command to start the tracing soft irq event time:

• softirqs(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/softirqs_example.txt file
• mpstat(1) man page

42.14. Summarizing packets size and count on a network interface

The netqtop utility displays statistics about the attributes of received (RX) and transmitted (TX) packets on each network queue of a particular network interface. The statistics include:

• Bytes per second (BPS)
• Packets per second (PPS)
• The average packet size
• Total number of packets

To generate these statistics, netqtop traces the kernel functions that perform events of transmitted packets net_dev_start_xmit and received packets netif_receive_skb .

Display the number of packets within the range of bytes size of the time interval of 2 seconds:

• Press Ctrl + C to stop netqtop .
• netqtop(8) man page
• /usr/share/bcc/tools/doc/netqtop_example.txt

42.15. Additional resources

• /usr/share/doc/bcc/README.md

Chapter 43. Configuring network devices to accept traffic from all MAC addresses

Network devices usually intercept and read packets that their controller is programmed to receive. You can configure the network devices to accept traffic from all MAC addresses in a virtual switch or at the port group level.

You can use this network mode to:

• Diagnose network connectivity issues
• Monitor network activity for security reasons
• Intercept private data-in-transit or intrusion in the network

You can enable this mode for any kind of network device, except InfiniBand .

43.1. Temporarily configuring a device to accept all traffic

You can use the ip utility to temporary configure a network device to accept all traffic regardless of the MAC addresses.

Optional: Display the network interfaces to identify the one for which you want to receive all traffic:

Modify the device to enable or disable this property:

To enable the accept-all-mac-addresses mode for enp1s0 :

To disable the accept-all-mac-addresses mode for enp1s0 :

Verify that the accept-all-mac-addresses mode is enabled:

The PROMISC flag in the device description indicates that the mode is enabled.

43.2. Permanently configuring a network device to accept all traffic using nmcli

You can use the nmcli utility to permanently configure a network device to accept all traffic regardless of the MAC addresses.

You can create a new connection, if you do not have any.

Modify the network device to enable or disable this property.

To enable the ethernet.accept-all-mac-addresses mode for enp1s0 :

Apply the changes, reactivate the connection:

Verify that the ethernet.accept-all-mac-addresses mode is enabled:

The 802-3-ethernet.accept-all-mac-addresses: true indicates that the mode is enabled.

43.3. Permanently configuring a network device to accept all traffic using nmstatectl

Use the nmstatectl utility to configure a device to accept all traffic regardless of the MAC addresses through the Nmstate API. The Nmstate API ensures that, after setting the configuration, the result matches the configuration file. If anything fails, nmstatectl automatically rolls back the changes to avoid leaving the system in an incorrect state.

• The enp1s0.yml file that you used to configure the device is available.

Edit the existing enp1s0.yml file for the enp1s0 connection and add the following content to it:

These settings configure the enp1s0 device to accept all traffic.

Apply the network settings:

Verify that the 802-3-ethernet.accept-all-mac-addresses mode is enabled:

Chapter 44. Mirroring a network interface by using nmcli

Network administrators can use port mirroring to replicate inbound and outbound network traffic being communicated from one network device to another. Mirroring traffic of an interface can be helpful in the following situations:

• To debug networking issues and tune the network flow
• To inspect and analyze the network traffic
• To detect an intrusion
• A network interface to mirror the network traffic to.

Add a network connection profile that you want to mirror the network traffic from:

Attach a prio qdisc to enp1s0 for the egress (outgoing) traffic with the 10: handle:

The prio qdisc attached without children allows attaching filters.

Add a qdisc for the ingress traffic, with the ffff: handle:

Add the following filters to match packets on the ingress and egress qdiscs , and to mirror them to enp7s0 :

The matchall filter matches all packets, and the mirred action redirects packets to destination.

Install the tcpdump utility:

Display the traffic mirrored on the target device ( enp7s0 ):

• How to capture network packets using tcpdump

Chapter 45. Using nmstate-autoconf to automatically configure the network state using LLDP

Network devices can use the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to advertise their identity, capabilities, and neighbors in a LAN. The nmstate-autoconf utility can use this information to automatically configure local network interfaces.

The nmstate-autoconf utility is provided as a Technology Preview only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production Service Level Agreements (SLAs), might not be functionally complete, and Red Hat does not recommend using them for production. These previews provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

45.1. Using nmstate-autoconf to automatically configure network interfaces

The nmstate-autoconf utility uses LLDP to identify the VLAN settings of interfaces connected to a switch to configure local devices.

This procedure assumes the following scenario and that the switch broadcasts the VLAN settings using LLDP:

• The enp1s0 and enp2s0 interfaces of the RHEL server are connected to switch ports that are configured with VLAN ID 100 and VLAN name prod-net .
• The enp3s0 interface of the RHEL server is connected to a switch port that is configured with VLAN ID 200 and VLAN name mgmt-net .

The nmstate-autoconf utility then uses this information to create the following interfaces on the server:

• bond100 - A bond interface with enp1s0 and enp2s0 as ports.
• prod-net - A VLAN interface on top of bond100 with VLAN ID 100 .
• mgmt-net - A VLAN interface on top of enp3s0 with VLAN ID 200

If you connect multiple network interfaces to different switch ports for which LLDP broadcasts the same VLAN ID, nmstate-autoconf creates a bond with these interfaces and, additionally, configures the common VLAN ID on top of it.

• LLDP is enabled on the network switch.
• The Ethernet interfaces are up.

Enable LLDP on the Ethernet interfaces:

Create a YAML file, for example ~/enable-lldp.yml , with the following content:

Configure the network interfaces using LLDP:

Optional, start a dry-run to display and verify the YAML configuration that nmstate-autoconf generates:

Use nmstate-autoconf to generate the configuration based on information received from LLDP, and apply the settings to the system:

If there is no DHCP server in your network that provides the IP settings to the interfaces, configure them manual. For details, see:

Display the settings of the individual interfaces:

• nmstate-autoconf(8) man page

Chapter 46. Configuring 802.3 link settings

Auto-negotiation is a feature of the IEEE 802.3u Fast Ethernet protocol. It targets the device ports to provide an optimal performance of speed, duplex mode, and flow control for information exchange over a link. Using the auto-negotiation protocol, you have optimal performance of data transfer over the Ethernet.

To utilize maximum performance of auto-negotiation, use the same configuration on both sides of a link.

46.1. Configuring 802.3 link settings using the nmcli utility

To configure the 802.3 link settings of an Ethernet connection, modify the following configuration parameters:

• 802-3-ethernet.auto-negotiate
• 802-3-ethernet.speed
• 802-3-ethernet.duplex

Display the current settings of the connection:

You can use these values if you need to reset the parameters in case of any problems.

Set the speed and duplex link settings:

This command enables auto-negotiation and sets the speed of the connection to 10000 Mbit full duplex.

Reactivate the connection:

Use the ethtool utility to verify the values of Ethernet interface enp1s0 :

Chapter 47. Getting started with DPDK

The data plane development kit (DPDK) provides libraries and network drivers to accelerate packet processing in user space.

Administrators use DPDK, for example, in virtual machines to use Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) to reduce latencies and increase I/O throughput.

Red Hat does not support experimental DPDK APIs.

47.1. Installing the dpdk package

To use DPDK, install the dpdk package.

Use the dnf utility to install the dpdk package:

47.2. Additional resources

• Network Adapter Fast Datapath Feature Support Matrix

Chapter 48. Getting started with TIPC

Transparent Inter-process Communication (TIPC), which is also known as Cluster Domain Sockets , is an Inter-process Communication (IPC) service for cluster-wide operation.

Applications that are running in a high-available and dynamic cluster environment have special needs. The number of nodes in a cluster can vary, routers can fail, and, due to load balancing considerations, functionality can be moved to different nodes in the cluster. TIPC minimizes the effort by application developers to deal with such situations, and maximizes the chance that they are handled in a correct and optimal way. Additionally, TIPC provides a more efficient and fault-tolerant communication than general protocols, such as TCP.

48.1. The architecture of TIPC

TIPC is a layer between applications using TIPC and a packet transport service ( bearer ), and spans the level of transport, network, and signaling link layers. However, TIPC can use a different transport protocol as bearer, so that, for example, a TCP connection can serve as a bearer for a TIPC signaling link.

TIPC supports the following bearers:

• UDP protocol

TIPC provides a reliable transfer of messages between TIPC ports, that are the endpoints of all TIPC communication.

The following is a diagram of the TIPC architecture:

48.2. Loading the tipc module when the system boots

Before you can use the TIPC protocol, you must load the tipc kernel module. You can configure Red Hat Enterprise Linux to automatically load this kernel module automatically when the system boots.

Create the /etc/modules-load.d/tipc.conf file with the following content:

Restart the systemd-modules-load service to load the module without rebooting the system:

Use the following command to verify that RHEL loaded the tipc module:

If the command shows no entry for the tipc module, RHEL failed to load it.

• modules-load.d(5) man page

48.3. Creating a TIPC network

To create a TIPC network, perform this procedure on each host that should join the TIPC network.

The commands configure the TIPC network only temporarily. To permanently configure TIPC on a node, use the commands of this procedure in a script, and configure RHEL to execute that script when the system boots.

• The tipc module has been loaded. For details, see Loading the tipc module when the system boots

Optional: Set a unique node identity, such as a UUID or the node’s host name:

The identity can be any unique string consisting of a maximum 16 letters and numbers.

You cannot set or change an identity after this step.

Add a bearer. For example, to use Ethernet as media and enp0s1 device as physical bearer device, enter:

• Optional: For redundancy and better performance, attach further bearers using the command from the previous step. You can configure up to three bearers, but not more than two on the same media.
• Repeat all previous steps on each node that should join the TIPC network.

Display the link status for cluster members:

This output indicates that the link between bearer enp1s0 on node 5254006b74be and bearer enp1s0 on node 525400df55d1 is up .

Display the TIPC publishing table:

• The two entries with service type 0 indicate that two nodes are members of this cluster.
• The entry with service type 1 represents the built-in topology service tracking service.
• The entry with service type 2 displays the link as seen from the issuing node. The range limit 3741353223 represents the peer endpoint’s address (a unique 32-bit hash value based on the node identity) in decimal format.
• tipc-bearer(8) man page
• tipc-namespace(8) man page

48.4. Additional resources

Red Hat recommends to use other bearer level protocols to encrypt the communication between nodes based on the transport media. For example:

• MACSec: See Using MACsec to encrypt layer 2 traffic
• IPsec: See Configuring a VPN with IPsec
• For examples of how to use TIPC, clone the upstream GIT repository using the git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/tipc/tipcutils command. This repository contains the source code of demos and test programs that use TIPC features. Note that this repository is not provided by Red Hat.
• /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc- <kernel_version> /Documentation/output/networking/tipc.html provided by the kernel-doc package.

Chapter 49. Automatically configuring network interfaces in public clouds using nm-cloud-setup

Usually, a virtual machine (VM) has only one interface that is configurable by DHCP. However, DHCP cannot configure VMs with multiple network entities, such as interfaces, IP subnets, and IP addresses. Additionally, you cannot apply settings when the VM instance is running. To solve this runtime configuration issue, the nm-cloud-setup utility automatically retrieves configuration information from the metadata server of the cloud service provider and updates the network configuration of the host. The utility automatically picks up multiple network interfaces, multiple IP addresses, or IP subnets on one interface and helps to reconfigure the network of the running VM instance.

49.1. Configuring and pre-deploying nm-cloud-setup

To enable and configure network interfaces in public clouds, run nm-cloud-setup as a timer and service.

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux On Demand and AWS golden images, nm-cloud-setup is already enabled and no action is required.

Prerequisite

• A network connection exists.

The connection uses DHCP.

By default, NetworkManager creates a connection profile which uses DHCP. If no profile was created because you set the no-auto-default parameter in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf , create this initial connection manually.

Install the nm-cloud-setup package:

Create and run the snap-in file for the nm-cloud-setup service:

Use the following command to start editing the snap-in file:

It is important to either start the service explicitly or reboot the system to make configuration settings effective.

Use the systemd snap-in file to configure the cloud provider in nm-cloud-setup . For example, to use Amazon EC2, enter:

You can set the following environment variables to enable the cloud provide you use:

• NM_CLOUD_SETUP_AZURE for Microsoft Azure
• NM_CLOUD_SETUP_EC2 for Amazon EC2 (AWS)
• NM_CLOUD_SETUP_GCP for Google Cloud Platform(GCP)
• NM_CLOUD_SETUP_ALIYUN for Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun)
• Save the file and quit the editor.

Reload the systemd configuration:

Enable and start the nm-cloud-setup service:

Enable and start the nm-cloud-setup timer:

• nm-cloud-setup(8) man page

49.2. Understanding the role of IMDSv2 and nm-cloud-setup in the RHEL EC2 instance

The instance metadata service (IMDS) in Amazon EC2 allows you to manage permissions to access instance metadata of a running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) EC2 instance. The RHEL EC2 instance uses IMDS version 2 (IMDSv2), a session-oriented method. By using the nm-cloud-setup utility, administrators can reconfigure the network and automatically update the configuration of running RHEL EC2 instances. The nm-cloud-setup utility handles IMDSv2 API calls by using IMDSv2 tokens without any user intervention.

• IMDS runs on a link-local address 169.254.169.254 for providing access to native applications on a RHEL EC2 instance.
• After you have specified and configured IMDSv2 for each RHEL EC2 instance for applications and users, you can no longer access IMDSv1.
• By using IMDSv2, the RHEL EC2 instance maintains metadata without using the IAM role while remaining accessible through the IAM role.
• When the RHEL EC2 instance boots, the nm-cloud-setup utility automatically runs to fetch the EC2 instance API access token for using the RHEL EC2 instance API.

Use the IMDSv2 token as an HTTP header to check the details of the EC2 environment.

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