Canonical has changed the way we configure static IPs in Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Server requires editing a .yaml file (complete with proper adherence to correct code indent for each line of the block), in order to configure your IP addressing.
Open up a terminal window on your Ubuntu 20.04 server (or log in via secure shell). Change into the /etc/netplan directory with the command cd /etc/netplan. Issue the command ls and you should see a file named 50-cloud-init.yaml. If you don’t also see a file named 01-netcfg.yaml, create it with the command sudo touch 01-netcfg.yaml. Before we edit that file, we need to know the name of our networking interface. Issue the command ip a and you should see your system network interface listed by name
root@live:/# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: ens32: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:50:56:00:28:45 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet xx.xx.xx.xx/27 brd xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx scope global dynamic ens32
valid_lft 27835sec preferred_lft 27835sec
inet6 fe80::250:56ff:fe00:2847/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
network:
version: 2
renderer: networkd
ethernets:
ens32:
dhcp4: no
addresses: [192.168.1.200]
gateway4: 192.168.1.1
nameservers:
addresses: [8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4]
What’s crucial about the layout of this file is not using the exact same spacing as my example, but that you’re consistent. If you’re not consistent with your indents, the file will not work. What you see in that sample file is all you need to configure that static IP address. Do notice, you aren’t setting the address is the same fashion as you did with Ubuntu 16.04. With the old method, you set IP address and netmask like so:
address = 192.168.1.200 netmask = 255.255.255.0
With netplan, these are set with a single line:
addresses : [192.168.1.200/24]
Restarting/testing networking
With the new method, you must restart networking using netplan. So once you’ve configured your interface, issue the command:
sudo netplan apply
The above command will restart networking and apply the new configuration. You shouldn’t see any output. If networking fails to function properly, you can issue the command:
sudo netplan --debug applyThat’s all there is to it
There ya go. That’s all there is to configuring a static IP address in Ubuntu Server 20.04. Remember, you’ll have to do this for each interface you have on your server. Make sure to name the files something like 01-netcfg.yaml and 02-netcfg-yaml. It’s not terribly difficult, once you’re used to not working with that old-school interfaces file
