How to Configure the Network Interface File Automatically for Red Hat Linux

You can configure the network interface for the Oracle or Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform by using the GUI or manually editing the configuration file.

This procedure describes how to manually edit the configuration file. For instructions on configuring the network interface using the GUI, refer to the documentation for your Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) version at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/install/index.html or RHEL version at: http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/index.html

For OEL or RHEL systems, the interface configuration files are named ifcfg-ethn (for example., ifcfg-eth2 for the eth2 network device as shown in preceding examples). They reside in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts system directory.

1. Create a configuration file, as shown in the following example:

   host #> ls -l /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ 
   total 392-rw-r--r-- 3 root root   116 Oct 10 12:40 ifcfg-eth0
   -rw-r--r-- 3 root root   187 Oct 10 12:40 ifcfg-eth1
   -rw-r--r-- 3 root root   127 Oct 21 16:46 ifcfg-eth2
   -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   254 Mar  3  2008 ifcfg-lo
   [...]
    
   host #>cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth2
   # Sun NEM/Hydra 10GbE
   DEVICE=eth2
   BOOTPROTO=static
   HWADDR=00:14:4F:29:00:1D
   IPADDR=10.1.10.156
   NETMASK=255.255.255.0
   ONBOOT=no

   This sample eth2 ifcfg file was created by hand using a text editor. The first line # Sun NEM Hydra 10GbE is a comment that is useful in keeping track of different files. For this particular example, ONBOOT=no is specified, which means that the network interface is not brought online (up) automatically when the system is booted. Specifying ONBOOT=yes would be the normal configuration.

2. Use the ifconfig command or the shorthand ifup script to bring the network interface online (up) for usage once the system has booted (to at least runlevel 3).

   host #> ifconfig eth2 up

   or

   host #> ifup eth2