Advanced Network Configuration in Debian 10 (Buster)

In this guide, we will see various ways to configure various network operations on the Debian system. Although this guide is for the Debian system, most operations should run on other Debian based systems like Ubuntu and other Linux operating systems as well.

 1. If you want, you can print the IP address of a specific interface or device, just use the below command:

$ ip addr show enp0s8


here enp0s8 is any interface or device. The naming convention may vary depending upon the naming mechanism used.

2. IP command can also be used to show the network performance statistics as follows:

$ ip -s  link show enp0s8


The above command output reveals the number of packets transmitted and received, packets dropped, and the packet with errors. This information can be used to troubleshoot network issues like low memory, connectivity issues, packet congestion, etc.

3. Using nmcli or Network Manager Command Line Interface tool to create a DHCP network connection

$ sudo nmcli con add con-name "MyCon1" type ethernet ifname enp0s8


The above command will create a new connection named “MyCon1” on the device enp0s8. Let us see some details about this command:

  • The configuration of this connection will be based on DHCP. The type of this connection is ethernet. Other types of network connection can be wifi, Bluetooth, vlan, bond, team, bridge, etc.
  • The con-name argument defines the name of the connection.
  • The ifname option specifies the name of the interface or the device assigned for this connection.

4. To create a static connection using nmcli, we will need to specify the IP address and the gateway as the argument

$ sudo nmcli con add con-name “MyCon2” type ethernet ifname eth1 ip4 192.168.2.10/24 gw4 192.168.2.0

To activate the connection, use the following command:

$ sudo nmcli con up "MyCon2"

To verify the new connection, run:

$ nmcli con show –active

$ ip addr show enp0s3

5. Configuring the network with Network Interfaces File

The /etc/network/interfaces file contains the definitions of various interface configurations. We can add configuration details to create a new connection. Let us see some manual configuration:

I. Adding a static IP address:

1. Open the /etc/network/interfaces file with sudo privileges:

$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Now  add the following lines:

auto  enp0s3

iface enp0s3 inet static

address  192.168.1.63

netmask 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.1

You can add this configuration to the /etc/network/interfaces file or add it to a new file under the /etc/network/interfaces.d directory.

After modifying the above file, let’s restart the networking service for changes to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart networking

Now we will reload this interface by running the command ifdown followed by ifup:

$ sudo ifdown enp0s3

$ sudo ifup enp0s3


The ifup and ifdown commands are used to manage the interfaces defined in this file. These tools are very helpful while configuring the network from the command-line interface. These commands can be found in /sbin/ifup and /sbin/ifdown.

II. Adding a DHCP Address:

The dhcp IP address is automatically assigned from the IP address pool of the DHCP server.

To configure a DHCP address, enter the following line to /etc/network/interfaces file and save the file:

iface enp0s3 inet dhcp


Now restart the networking service and again run the command ifdown and ifup as above:

$ sudo systemctl restart networking

$ sudo ifdown enp0s3

$ sudo ifup enp0s3

To verify the above network configuration, use the following ‘ip’ command to see if the interfaces are shown with their respective ip addresses:

$ ip a | grep 'enp0s3'

Note: DHCP Ip is generally good for clients, but the server usually works on a Static IP address.

6. Setting Hostname with the “Sysctl” command

Linux provides a sysctl utility to display and set the hostname as shown below:

i) Displaying the hostname:

$ sudo sysctl kernel.hostname

kernel.hostname = debian


ii) Setting the hostname

$ sudo sysctl kernel.hostname= linuxhint

Now run the command bash exec to verify the new hostname:

$ exec bash

Now to make this hostname permanent, we will have to edit the /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname files, so open the files and put the new hostname there:

$ sudo nano /etc/hosts

$ sudo nano /etc/hostname

Now from this point, you should see your new hostname every time you open a new terminal.

7. DNS configuration

DNS or domain name service is a naming system that is used to translate domain names into network addresses (IPv4 or IPv6). The DNS service has much more capability than simply translating domain names. The DNS service can work on both internet as well as on a private network.

We will configure a client to use a specific dns server. In the example below, we will configure a client to use a dns server from 8.8.8.8. Open the file /etc/resolv.conf and make the following changes to it:

$ sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

Go to the line containing the string “nameserver” and add the IP address of the DNS server(8.8.8.8) as shown below:

nameserver 8.8.8.8

8. Using Bonding on Debian 10

Bonding is a method in which two or more interfaces are merged to make a new logical interface. This bonded interface makes the network more reliable. In case a link fails, the other link will automatically balance all the network traffic. This increases the network availability as well. You can try bonding your wireless interface with the cable interface. If for some reason, the ethernet cable is unplugged or not working, the network traffic will automatically start flowing over the wireless interface.

Tip: We can use bonding to add multiple network interfaces (NICs) with the same IP address.

To check if  your linux kernel version supports bonding, use the following command :

$ sudo grep -i bonding /boot/config-$(uname -r)

An output like “CONFIG_BONDING=m” shows that the bonding is enabled as a module

Let us see how to apply bonding on two ethernet interfaces, “eth1″ and” eth2″ on a Debian system. Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Install the ifenslave package to configure bonding:

$ sudo apt install ifenslave

Step 2.  Now bring down the interface before configuring it:

$ sudo ifdown enp0s3

Note: Before proceeding, make sure that the interface you are modifying should not be in use; otherwise, it will break your network connectivity.

Step 3. Create a new bonding configuration and called it “bond1”. To do this, open the default  network configuration file:

$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Now add the following lines:

auto bond1

iface bond1 inet static

address 192.168.1.200

netmask 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.1

slaves enp0s8

bond-mode 1

bond-miimon 100

bond_downdelay 200

bond_updelay 200

Restart the networking service

$ sudo systemctl restart networking

Linux supports different bond modes: balance-rr (mode=0), active-backup (mode=1), balance-xor (mode=2), broadcast (mode=3), 802.3ad (mode=4), balance-tlb (mode=5), balance-alb (mode=6). In this example we are using mode 1 or active backup as a bond mode.

Step 4. Bring the new bonded interface (bond1) up with command ifup. Now check if it works:

$ sudo ifup bond1

To check if the bind interface is created, run the following command:

$ ip a | grep 'bond1'

or

$ ifconfig bond1

9. Configuring bridging on Debian

Bridging is the most common way to connect two different networks. A bridge (hardware) device is used when connecting two different networks of an organization, usually located at different locations. Linux system also has the capability to create a bridge between two interfaces having different networks. This way we can pass traffic between them.

Let us create a bridge between two different interfaces, “eth0″ and” eth1,” on a Debian system.

Step 1. Install the “brctl” tool to configure bridging on the Debian system:

$ sudo apt install bridge-utils

Step 2. Run the following command to get a list of all the network interfaces available on your system:

$  ifconfig -a

Step 3. create a new interface using the brtcl tool:

$ sudo brctl addbr br1

This will create a new virtual interface to link between eth0 and eth1.

Step 4. Now add both the interfaces to this virtual interface.

$ sudo brctl addif br1 eth0 eth1

Step 5. To make this configuration permanent, we will add the new interface details to the file /etc/network/interfaces.

i) For setting a DHCP address, use the following details

# The loopback network interface

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

# Set up interfaces manually, avoiding conflicts with, e.g., network manager

iface eth0 inet manual

iface eth1 inet manual

# Bridge setup

iface br0 inet dhcp

bridge_ports eth0 eth1

Now run the below command to bring the interface up:

$ sudo ifup br1

ii) For setting a static IP address, use the following details

# The loopback network interface

 auto lo br1

 iface lo inet loopback


 # Set up interfaces manually, avoiding conflicts with, e.g., network manager

 iface eth0 inet manual


 iface eth1 inet manual


 # Bridge setup

 iface br1 inet static

    bridge_ports eth0 eth1

        address 192.168.1.2

        broadcast 192.168.1.255

        netmask 255.255.255.0

        gateway 192.168.1.1

Now run the below command to bring the interface up:

$ sudo ifup br1

If the network does not work after rebooting, try removing /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup file to fix the issue.

10. Configuring Networking from  Command-line tools

i) Adding an additional IP address to a network card:

Step 1. Run the following command to list all the available interfaces with their IP address:

$ sudo ip addr

or

$ sudo ifconfig

While running “ifconfig,” you may encounter an error: “ifconfig: command not found”. For fixing this error, we need to install the “net-tools” package:

$ sudo apt install net-tools -y

Step 2. From the output of the above command, you can select the interface on which you want to add an extra IP address. Let us add an extra IP address (10.0.2.65) to the interface enps03.

$ sudo ip addr add 10.0.2.65/24 dev enp0s3

Step 3. Verify if the IP has been added to this interface:

$ ip a | grep "enpo3"

You should see here the new and old IP address in the output.


Step 4. To make this IP address permanent, put the following lines in the  /etc/network/interfaces file:

# The network interface enp0s3 is dhcp enabled

auto enp0s3

iface enp0s3 inet dhcp

iface enp0s3 inet static

address  10.0.2.65/24

Step 5. Now save the file and bring down the interface and then again bring up the interface to apply the changes:

$ sudo ifdown  enpo3

$ sudo ifup  enpo3

Now verify the connectivity of the interface with the ping command:

$ sudo ping  10.0.2.65

If everything goes right, you should see a ping coming from the new IP address.

ii) Changing the mac address of an interface.

Step 1. Run the below command to select the interface for you which you want to change the MAC address for:

$ ip link show

It will show you all the interfaces with their mac address, state, and other information.

Step 2. Let us change the mac address of the “eth0” interface and bring it down:

Note: Before proceeding, make sure that the interface you are modifying should not be in use. Otherwise, it will break your network connectivity.

$ sudo ip link set dev eth0 down

Step 3. Now enter the new mac address as below:

$ sudo ip link set dev eth0 address "enter new mac address here."

Step 4.  Now bring up the interface again:

$ sudo ip link set dev eth0 up

That’s all configuring the new mac address; you should see the new mac address:

$ ip addr

The output of the above command should show you the new mac address. Macchanger can also be used for changing the mac address from the command line.

iii) Enable and disable interfaces.

Besides ifup and ifdown tools, the ifconfig command can also be used to bring up and bring down an interface.

a) To bring down an interface:

$ ifconfig enp0s3 down

b) To bring up an interface:

$ ifconfig enp0s3 up

iv) Remove an IP address from a network interface.

To delete an IP from the network interface, use the below command:

$ sudo ip addr del 'your IP address' dev  enp0s3

Replace ‘your IP address’ with your IP address, e.g., the following command will delete the IP 192.168.2.2

$ sudo ip addr del 192.168.2.2/16 dev  enp0s3

If you have multiple IP addresses for an interface, you can delete all as shown below:

$ sudo ip addr flush dev  enp0s3

v) Set the Default Gateway

The route or ip command can be used to set a Default Gateway:

$ sudo route add default gw  10.0.2.20

or

$ sudo ip route add default via 10.0.2.20 dev enp0s3

This guide has seen how we can modify and configure various network settings in a Debian 10 OS. If you like this guide, please share it with others.



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