Ubuntu Finally Looks To Go With Persistent Network Interface Names

[edmon]

I can't believe what i just have read.\

Finally, many distributions support renaming interfaces to user-chosen names (think: "internet0", "dmz0", ...) keyed off their MAC addresses or physical locations as part of their networking scripts. This is a very good choice but does have the problem that it implies that the user is willing and capable of choosing and assigning these names.

How in first place this user is willing and capable to turn on it's computer is the actual question!!!!

[carewolf]

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`

They are not forcing you to use the new names. Just use the classic names.

Edit: Seems you have to configure it though. I first though both would be available at the same time.

[stefansaraev]

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.

I perfectly understant that lot of people would need this feature, no arguing here. it's just the naming schema thats nonsense, imo. and yep, I'll "fix" it myself immediately when it comes to my favourite distro

EDIT: as said, it fixes a nonexistent problem, sane distros fixed the problem long time ago. I see this "fix" (especialy in ubuntu/debian derivatives. cant speak of rhel, long time no use here.) as "for sake of change", nothing more, nothing less. damn. too much EDITs for today

[stefansaraev]

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.

it's an issue, that has been solved ~ 10 years ago, iirc. on some distros (EDIT: including ubuntu), we have (autogenerated) persistent udev rule (details, details.. yea), ifnames tied to mac address and so, in past xx years, the only way I could get an ifname change was NOT to move to another pci/e slot, but to delete that autogenerated udev rule (or modify it)

[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.

[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.

[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

[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`

[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.

[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.