Shane Rainville
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How to configure Network Settings in Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

Configuring Ubuntu 18.04 Network Settings

Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver has switched to Netplan for configuring network interfaces. This is a yaml based configuration system, which should simplify the process.

This post will guide you through doing basic configurations, such as assigning a static IP or enabling DHCP on an interface.

Netplan Configuration File

Netplan is the new method of configuring Ubuntu network interfaces. While simple configuration, such as just setting a static IP, won’t gain much from the new system, a much more complex configuration will be greatly simplified.

The following is a list of the most common configuration options, and a description of how they are used.

Option Example Description
addresses [192.168.1.2/24, 192.168.8.10/28] A list of IP addresses to be assigned to an interface. The format uses CIDR notation.
gateway4 192.168.1.1 The IP address of your local IPv4 gateway.
gateway6 FDEC::1 The address of your local IPv6 gateway.
dhcp4 true Set whether DHCP is enabled for IPv4 – true of false
dhcp6 true Set whether DHCP is enabled for IPv6 – true of false

Configure Static IP Addresses

  1. Open the netplan configuration file into a text editor. 
    sudo vi /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml
  2. Modify the file to look similar to the following example. 
    network:
  ethernet:
    enp0s3:
      addresses: [192.168.1.10/24]
      gateway4: 192.168.1.1
      nameservers:
        search: [lab,  home]
        addresses: [8.8.8.8, 8.8.7.7]
      optional: true
version: 2
  3. Save your changes and exit the text editor.
  4. It is good practice to validate your configuration before applying it, to prevent service disruption from invalid syntax. 
    sudo netplan try
  5. Apply your new settings by running the following command. 
    sudo netplan apply

Configuring DHCP

  1. Open the netplan configuration file into a text editor. 
    sudo vi /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml
  2. Modify the file to look similar to the following example. 
    network:
  ethernet:
    enp0s3:
      addresses: []
      dhcp4: true
      optional: true
version: 2
  3. Save your changes and exit the text editor.
  4. Apply your new settings by running the following command. 
    sudo netplan apply
  5. It is good practice to validate your configuration before applying it, to prevent service disruption from invalid syntax. 
    sudo netplan try
  6. Verify your network settings have been applied correctly. 
    sudo netplan ip leases enp0s3
  7. You should see something similar to the following. 
    # This is private data. Do not parse.
ADDRESS=10.0.2.15
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ROUTER=10.0.2.2
SERVER_ADDRESS=10.0.2.2
NEXT_SERVER=10.0.2.4
T1=43200
T2=75600
LIFETIME=86400
DNS=10.0.0.2 10.1.0.2
CLIENTID=ffe2343f3e00020000ab1167702761b1da338e

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