Ubuntu Finally Looks To Go With Persistent Network Interface Names

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Finally Looks To Go With Persistent Network Interface Names

While Linux distributions like Fedora and Mageia have adopted predictable/persistent network interface names, Ubuntu has not. However, that is looking to change and it might also be the case for upstream Debian...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Persistent-Net-Names

[TheRealBecks]

So what would it look like for example?

[Ericg]

So what would it look like for example?

Old: wlan0
new: wlp3s0
old: eth0
new: enp0s25

As per: https://wiki.freedesktop.org/www/Sof...nterfaceNames/

[aksdb]

In my opinion that's not "persistent" at all. Because "persistence" is a matter of how you look at it. For me it's "persistent" if I know that "wlan0" will be the wlan interface if available. "wlan1" will be the next. wlp3s0 is mschine/hardware/setup specific. If I change the order of the hardware components or boot my live stick on a different machine, the name could be a different one.

But as I said: a matter of opinion.
I'm also aware that they are _usually_ called "predictable" interface names. Yes, predictable they are. I still don't like it :-) (And disabled it on my machines.)

[Ericg]

In my opinion that's not "persistent" at all. Because "persistence" is a matter of how you look at it. For me it's "persistent" if I know that "wlan0" will be the wlan interface if available. "wlan1" will be the next. wlp3s0 is mschine/hardware/setup specific. If I change the order of the hardware components or boot my live stick on a different machine, the name could be a different one.

But as I said: a matter of opinion.
I'm also aware that they are _usually_ called "predictable" interface names. Yes, predictable they are. I still don't like it :-) (And disabled it on my machines.)

This is more of a server feature, yes, because most users don't have multiple ethernet or wlan cards, though I do have one motherboard on order that does have 2 ethernets. Very useful to have them named something other than eth0 / eth1 for firewall rules. For some its useful, for some it's less so.

[blackout23]

Old: wlan0
new: wlp3s0
old: eth0
new: enp0s25

As per: https://wiki.freedesktop.org/www/Sof...nterfaceNames/

These names can become pretty wild, if you have something like a USB wifi/ethernet adapter. I have wlp0s11f1u1 here.

[david_lynch]

What a pain for server administrators. I wonder if these folks ever thought about how many boxes are out there running scripts that start out like this:


for i in `ifconfig -a | grep eth`

[stefansaraev]

What a pain for server administrators. I wonder if these folks ever thought about how many boxes are out there running scripts that start out like this:


for i in `ifconfig -a | grep eth`

I am server administrator myself, doing networking for 15+ years, I call this "predictable network interfaces" thing bullshit.

well, it's not that I would use ubuntu "server" (what??) anytime soon, anyway

[Ericg]

What a pain for server administrators. I wonder if these folks ever thought about how many boxes are out there running scripts that start out like this:


for i in `ifconfig -a | grep eth`

The bigger pain is when you have network interfaces switching themselves around during boot. Its the same reason why we stopped using /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdc in /fstab. If the kernel probes in them in a different order on the next boot then /dev/sdb could wind up as /dev/sda and you get a nonbooting system. The only way network interface names will change under the new system is if you physically move them into different slots.

Also, yes, considering this got pushed originally by RHEL I promise you that they considered several scenarios that server admins find themselves in... its kind of their job.

[Ericg]

I am server administrator myself, doing networking for 15+ years, I call this "predictable network interfaces" thing bullshit.

well, it's not that I would use ubuntu "server" (what??) anytime soon, anyway

Not denying your experience, but its not just Ubuntu Server who does this... You also get it on RHEL and RHEL-clones, SUSE, possibly soon Debian, as well as any distro who uses a recent version of udev. You can disable it, or just make udev rules where you manually name them, but by default you're gonna get it eventually unless you move to *BSD.