Configure Static IP Addresses using Netplan on Ubuntu

How to set static IP addresses using Netplan on Ubuntu? In this tutorial, you will learn how to configure static IP addresses using Netplan on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04/22.04. To manage network interfaces, recent versions of Ubuntu uses the Netplan utility. Netplan is a YAML network configuration abstraction for various back-ends.

Configuring Static IP Addresses using Netplan on Ubuntu

The Netplan command has replaced the commonly used static interfaces IP address configuration file, /etc/network/interfaces, with various network configuration files in the /etc/netplan/ directory. The files in this directory are in yaml format.

On Ubuntu 18.04 server and later, networkd renderer is used to control network interfaces.

If you need to connect to WiFi in Linux using NMCLI command, then you can check our guide by following the link below;

Connect to WiFi in Linux Using NMCLI command

Using Netplan to Configure Static IP Addresses on Ubuntu

Before we proceed to configure static IP address on an interface on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 Server, let us have a look at the format of the default netplan configuration file, /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

less /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# For more information, see netplan(5).
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp0s3:
    dhcp4: yes

From the above output, DHCP is enabled for interface enp0s3 and is thus relying on DHCP server for IP addresses assignment.

To set static IP address on an interface using Netplan on Ubuntu, we will use the same format as in the output of the configuration file above.

We will have to disable the DHCP server for our interface along with adding other details as shown below. In the example below, we will configure enp0s8 interface as follows;

• static IP address 192.168.59.81
• netmask 255.255.255.0
• gateway 192.168.59.1
• nameserver 1.1.1.1, 4.2.2.2.

To reduce too much work, we will just copy the above configuration file and do some modification.

cp /etc/netplan/{01,02}-netcfg.yaml

vim /etc/netplan/02-netcfg.yaml

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# For more information, see netplan(5).
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp0s8:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [192.168.59.81/24]
      routes:
        - to: 0.0.0.0/0
          via: 192.168.59.1
      nameservers:
        addresses: [1.1.1.1,4.2.2.2]

Save the configuration file and apply the changes using the command below.

Before you can save the changes, first of all check if any error with configuration;

netplan try

Sample output;

Do you want to keep these settings?


Press ENTER before the timeout to accept the new configuration


Changes will revert in 107 seconds

If there is any error, it will be printed out. Otherwise, you will be asked to Press ENTER to save changes before timeout is reached.

You can as well cancel the above and apply changes using;

netplan apply

Check the IP add on the enp0s8 interface to confirm the assignment.

ip add show enp0s8

4: enp0s8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
   link/ether 08:00:27:87:d4:14 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   inet 192.168.59.81/24 brd 192.168.59.255 scope global enp0s8
      valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe87:d414/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

As you can see, the IP address is assigned.

If you want to assign different IPs to different interfaces in the same configuration file, you can do so as follows.

vim /etc/netplan/02-netcfg.yaml

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# For more information, see netplan(5).
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp0s8:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [192.168.59.81/24]
      routes:
        - to: 192.168.59.0/24
          via: 192.168.59.1
      nameservers:
        search: example.com
        addresses: [1.1.1.1,4.2.2.2]
    enp0s9:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [192.168.58.92/24]
      routes:
        - to: 192.168.58.0/24
          via: 192.168.58.1
      nameservers:
        addresses: [1.1.1.1,4.2.2.2]

Once done with configuration, remember to run the netplan apply command to apply the changes and bring the interfaces up.

That is all about how to configure Static IP Addresses using Netplan on Ubuntu.

See also;

Set Static Routes via an Interface/IP on CentOS/Ubuntu

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