I have been using ifconfig command to configure network interfaces, enable or disable interface, display IP address information, change MAC address of the network interface on Linux. But where is that command now on CentOS 7? I get ifconfig command not found on CentOS 7 minimal installation? Well, you know what, ifconfig command is now obsolete on minimal versions of RHEL 7, CentOS 7 and other Linux versions starting from 7. If you ever install minimal version of CentOS 7, then here’s how you can find IP address & other details of network interfaces.
In CentOS 7 minimal installation, you can use alternate command – ‘ip addr‘ to view the network interface details.
How to view IP address details using ip command?
$ ip addr 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo inet6 ::1/128 scope host valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000 linet 10.180.8.129/26 brd 10.180.8.1 scope global eth0 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
You can also use ‘ip link‘ to view the statistics of the network interface.
$ ip link 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000 3: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
How to assign an IP address to an interface?
# ip addr add 10.180.8.220 dev eth0
The IP address assigned using the above command is temporary and it will be lost after system restart. To make permanent changes, you need to edit /etc/network/interfaces and assign an IP address.
auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 10.180.8.220 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 10.180.8.1
How to remove an IP address
# ip addr del 10.180.8.220/24 dev eth0
How to enable/disable network interface
Remember, ifup and ifdown commands for enabling and disabling network interface? The same can be achieved using the below commands.
# ip link set eth0 up
To disable network interface:
# ip link set eth0 down
How to get back ifconfig on CentOS 7 minimal installation?
Simply install a package that provides ifconfig command. To check which package provides ifconfig command, run the below command.
# yum provides ifconfig
Sample output:
net-tools-2.0-0.17.20131004git.el7.x86_64 : Basic networking tools Repo : @base Matched from: Filename : /usr/sbin/ifconfig
The above output confirms that net-tools is the package that provides ifconfig command.
Install net-tools package using yum
# yum install net-tools
That’s it! You can now use ifconfig command on CentOS 7 minimal installation.
