NetworkManager Fights With DHCP-only Backup NIC
We ship servers to remote sites, which are rarely staffed with techs familiar with Linux. We have them tell us the static IP configuration for the box before we ship it, then we set it up for them here and ship it out to the site, where they just plug it in, turn it on, and walk away.
That
15 thoughts on - NetworkManager Fights With DHCP-only Backup NIC
Is there anyone who has more than a few boxes at more than one location who _doesn’t_ have this issue? I’d like to see a FAQ or something by whoever designed the network configuration system about how they planned for it to work (with and without GUI availability). Likewise for what is supposed to happen when you restore a backup onto different hardware.
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Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@gmail.com
Most of the time, I end up nuking HWADDR from orbit on most boxes. It just causes more trouble than it fixes.
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Nate Duehr denverpilot@me.com
Sure, but the interface names will be different in the ‘restore backup case’ – especially on servers that have several.
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Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@gmail.com
Have you put NM_CONTROLLED=”no”
in the ifcfg-eth0 script?
Think ‘laptop’.
How is that better than
systemctl stop NetworkManager
systemctl disable NetworkManager
Again, I
What part of the breakage that NetworkManager does is good for a wired, static-addressed server? But, in your scenario where both nics are plugged in and your only problem is the non-working gateway IP you should be able to SSH to some other box on the working network, then over to the new ones DHCP address. The gateway won’t matter if both ends are on the same subnet.
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Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@gmail.com
Why would you need a static IP to stick to a laptop? Or have multiple NICs on one?
If you disable NM, the network configuration GUI stops working in EL7. (I didn
Wired and WiFi.
If you configure a static IP with the wired Ethernet plugged in, you probably want that static IP to continue being used when you unplug the Ethernet cable and NM switches you over automatically to WiFi. NM does this.
This is why I want a checkbox in the NM GUI:
But can’t you still set NM_CONTROLLED=no on an interface?
I’m way too familiar with the problem – but we usually have several boxes in one place.
I’ve done some weird stuff like scripts that bring up all the interfaces, look for link, apply one of the IPs that the box should have to one of the interfaces with link up, try to ping the gateway, lather, rinse, repeat, but I’ve never been happy with any of it. Maybe a USB wifi adapter could be set up to make an openvpn connection back to a home server if you know the location has wifi. That could give you a known private IP to connect to for the rest of the configuration.
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Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@gmail.com
Really? That’s insane. Our wired jacks are not on the same subnets as our access points. I’m not sure that’s even possible with the Cisco units that have separate controllers.
How about just ‘don’t be stupid’ ?
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Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@gmail.com
That still effectively breaks the network settings GUI. Interfaces you mark that way show as
In such a network, you won
I don’t get it. Laptops are portable. Don’t you ever go out of your house? If you control everything you can easily tell your dhcp server what IP to give it when you are there.
I’d argue that splitting the community into separate groups – one that likes the design of unix/linux and runs large numbers of servers because they like it, and one that would really rather have a windows desktop for their only machine was the wrong thing to do in the first place. And having broken the community, letting the group that doesn’t like the product in the first place control the design is probably a bad thing too. Red Hat wasn’t that bad back when the people using it contributed directly to its development and were able to use the result.
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Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@gmail.com