Introduction to Networking - I
Transient and Reboot Persistent Static IP

Objective

The objective of this lab is to introduce you to the concepts of network addressing, specifically setting up a dynamic and static address. You will learn how to set a transient static IP address from the command line (which will only be available until the machine next reboots). In addition, this lab will also show you HOWTO set a network adapter to a static IP that sticks (persists even after rebooting).

Overview

  1. Get IP address associated with an interface.
  2. HOWTO detect the type of IP assigned (dynamic or static) using the ip command.
  3. What type of IP did the VirtualBox VM get? How does this dynamic IP connect the VM to the Internet?
  4. HOWTO assign a static IP address to an interface:
    • using the ip command to assign a temporary or transient static IP
    • editing the /etc/network/interfaces to assign a permanent or reboot-persistent static IP

What to do

1. Display useful networking information

Display useful networking information as follows: 

ip address show dev enp0s3

The initial output (before adding the second network interface) from my DS (Debian Stable) machine is 

2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:98:e0:c0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute enp0s3
       valid_lft 81690sec preferred_lft 81690sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:e0c0/64 scope link noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Notice the word dynamic in the output above indicates enp0s3 received a dynamic IP address.

2. Add the secondary interface

3. HOWTO set transient IP

After your DS (Debian Stable) machine has booted up you may set the IP address of enp0s8 as follows (you need to be administrator to run the following commands) 

ip address show dev enp0s8
ip address add 192.168.99.19/24 dev enp0s8
ip address show dev enp0s8

The interface enp0s8 is set to IP 192.168.99.19 but the trouble is after rebooting enp0s8 no longer has that IP. This happens because the IP address setup was transient meaning those settings are not reboot-persistent.

4. HOWTO set (reboot-persistent) static IP and dynamic (DHCP) IP

In this section we shall see how to setup a reboot persistent IP address. For things to be setup correctly, we need to assign enp0s3 a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or in other words a dynamic IP) address and we need to assign enp0s8 a static IP.

  • Read and understand HOWTO set a dynamic IP
  • Read and understand HOWTO set a static IP. CAREFUL use auto instead of allow-hotplug otherwise you might get networking issues.


  • IMPORTANT HINTS:

    • Before setting values for address, netmask, gateway, dns-domain, and dns-nameservers, understand what each of them mean. Read man interfaces (type man interfces on the command line and press Enter) and the Debian Wiki on Network Configuration.


    • For this static IP network interface, do not set a gateway IP (comment out or remove the entire line) because the dynamic interface (which uses DHCP) automatically sets the gateway IP for this node (your DS machine) and only one gateway should be set per node.


    • Modify the IP values in the reference information for the subnet 192.168.99.0/24 used in this example (see Questions #6 and #7 in the practice questions below for the IP and netmask values used in this example).


    • You may leave dns-domain blank but use 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8 for dns-nameservers.

    • At the minimum, add these lines to the existing contents of /etc/network/interfaces 

      auto enp0s3
iface enp0s3 dhcp

auto enp0s8
iface enp0s8 static
  address 192.168.99.19/24

5. Reference Output

Compare your output after rebooting with these values on Seneca Campus 

ip address

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:98:e0:c0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global enp0s3
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:e0c0/64 scope link
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:e7:3b:f2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.99.19/24 brd 192.168.99.255 scope global enp0s8
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fee7:3bf2/64 scope link
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

ip route

default via 10.0.2.2 dev enp0s3
10.0.2.0/24 dev enp0s3 proto kernel scope link src 10.0.2.15
192.168.99.0/24 dev enp0s8 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.99.18

cat /etc/resolv.conf

On Seneca campus, I got these values but yours may vary depending on the nameservers your node received when getting its dynamic IP. 

domain senecacollege.ca
search senecacollege.ca
nameserver 10.102.100.21
nameserver 10.102.100.22
nameserver 10.101.100.22
nameserver 10.101.100.21
nameserver 10.103.100.22

Only show IP address and MAC address for a network interface

  • Using any command line commands how would you only display the IP address 10.0.2.15/24 in the example above.
  • Using any command line commands how would you only display the MAC address 08:00:27:98:e0:c0 in the example above.

Commands used in class

command purpose
ip manage routing, network devices, interfaces, and tunnels
ip address show shows ip address
ip -brief address alternate method to show ip address
ip -4 address show up another method to show IPv4 address on active interfaces only
sudo ip link set enable/disable ip interface
ip route show routing table
sudo dhclient to get a dynamic address
ping 1.1.1.1 to test network availability
ping senecacollege.ca do a network friendly name lookup (Domain Name Server query)
getent ahosts senecacollege.ca another way to do DNS lookup
wget -O- debian.org better method of testing Internet connectivity
sudo ip address add .. dev ... assign static IP
sudo systemctl stop stop a service like networking/NetworkManager
sudo systemctl start start a service like networking/NetworkManager
sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces file to edit for setting up network interfaces

Practice Questions

  1. What one line command displays the IP address of an interface?


  2. What one line command displays the MAC address of an interface?


  3. What is the difference between static and dynamic IP address?


  4. What type of address (static or dynamic) was displayed when you display the IP address (in Practice Question #1)? Can you find out what type of address (dynamic or static) it was? If so how do you find out and does the type of address given (static or dynamic) matter?


  5. What is required to setup a dynamic address?


  6. IMPORTANT How do you set the secondary interface to have static IP 192.168.99.98/30 using the ip command from the command line? How can you confirm that the IP address was setup correctly?


  7. IMPORTANT Reboot and check whether the IP address, on the secondary interface, continues to persist beyond the reboot. What file would you edit so the secondary interface gets a reboot-persistent static IP? What settings would you put into that file so the secondary interface gets static address 192.168.99.98/30 that's reboot-persistent?


  8. After setting the IP to 192.168.99.98/30 your secondary interface for static addressing correctly, how would you disable your primary interface using the ip command? Attempt to connect to the Internet. Were you able to connect to the Internet work? If not? why not?


  9. Now enable your primary interface and disable the secondary interface? Are you able to connect to the Internet? Were you able to connect?


  10. IMPORTANT What commands would you use, from the command line, to do the following:
    1. Check whether you have Internet connectivity or not. Show at least 2 different ways of doing this (use two different commands).
    2. Enable a network interface. In other words, how do you bring a link (network adapter) up?
    3. Disable a network interface. How do you bring a link down?
    4. Show the IP address with the network address assigned to a network interface.
    5. What command displays the gateway IP of your node and why is the default gateway important for your machine? What is the default gateway IP of your DS (Debian Stable) machine?

Created: 2020-09-22 Tue 18:31