In this tutorial, we'll explain how to set up a static IP address on Ubuntu 18.04.
IP addresses are assigned dynamically by your router DHCP server. In different situations such as configuring port forwarding or running a media server on your network, it may be necessary to set a static IP address on your Ubuntu computer.
Configuring Static IP address using DHCP
The easiest and the recommended way to assign a static IP address to a device on your LAN is by setting up a Static DHCP on your router. Static DHCP or DHCP reservation is a feature found on most routers which makes the DHCP server to automatically assign the same IP address to a specific network device, every time the device requests an address from the DHCP server. This works by assigning a static IP to the device unique MAC address. The steps for configuring a DHCP reservation varies from router to router and it’s advisable to consult the vendor’s documentation.
Netplan
Starting with 17.10 release, Netplan is the default network management tool on Ubuntu, replacing the configuration file /etc/network/interfaces that had previously been used to configure the network on Ubuntu.
Netplan uses configuration files with YAML syntax. To configure a network interface with Netplan you simply create a YAML description for that interface and Netplan generates the required configuration files for your chosen renderer tool.
Netplan currently supports two renderers NetworkManager and Systemd-networkd. NetworkManager is mostly used on desktop machines, while System-network is used without a GUI on servers.
Configuring Static IP address on Ubuntu Server
The newer versions of Ubuntu uses ‘Predictable Network Interface Names’ that start with en[letter][number]. by default. The first step is to identify the name of the ethernet interface you want to configure. You can use the ip link command as shown below:
ip link
The command will print a list of all the available network interfaces. In this case, the name of the interface is ens3:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
3: ens3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 56:00:00:60:20:0a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Netplan configuration files are stored in the /etc/netplan directory and have the extension .yaml. You’ll probably find one or two YAML files in this directory. The file may differ from setup to setup. Usually, the file is named either 01-netcfg.yaml, 50-cloud-init.yaml or NN_interfaceName.yaml, but in your system it may be different.
Open the YAML configuration file with your text editor:
sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
network:
version: 2
renderer: networkd
ethernets:
ens3:
dhcp4: yesLet's explain the code in a short time before changing the configuration.
Each Netplan Yaml file starts with the network key that has at least two required elements. The first required element is the version of network configuration format and the second one is the device type. Device types values can be ethernets, bonds, bridges, and vlans.
The configuration above also includes the renderer type. Out of the box, if you installed Ubuntu in server mode the renderer is configured to use networkd as the back end.
Under the device’s type ( in this case ethernets) we can specify one or more network interfaces. In this example we have only one interface ens3 that is configured to obtain IP addressing from a DHCP server dhcp4: yes.
To assign a static IP address to ens3 interface edit the file as follows:
- Set DHCP to no
dhcp4: yes - Specify the static IP address
192.168.121.199/24. Underaddresses:you can add one or more IPv4 or IPv6 IP addresses that will be assigned to the network interface. - Specify the gateway
gateway4: 192.168.121.1 - Under
nameservers, specify the nameserversaddresses: [8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1]
network:
version: 2
renderer: networkd
ethernets:
ens3:
dhcp4: no
addresses:
- 192.168.121.199/24
gateway4: 192.168.121.1
nameservers:
addresses: [8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1]Make sure you follow the YAML code indent requirements when editing Yaml files as it may not work if the configuration includes a syntax error.
Once the file is saved and closed and the changes are applied with:
sudo netplan apply
Verify the changes by typing:
ip addr show dev ens3
3: ens3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 56:00:00:60:20:0a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.121.199/24 brd 192.168.121.255 scope global dynamic ens3
valid_lft 3575sec preferred_lft 3575sec
inet6 fe80::5054:ff:feb0:f500/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
That’s it! You have assigned a static IP to your Ubuntu server.
Configuring Static IP address on Ubuntu Desktop
Setting up a static IP address on Ubuntu Desktop computers requires no technical knowledge.
1.In the Activities screen, search for “network” and click on the Network icon. This will open the GNOME Network configuration settings. Click on the cog icon.
Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by clicking on the terminal icon and verify the changes by typing:ip addr
The output will show the interface IP address:
...
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 52:54:00:e9:40:f2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.121.106/24 brd 192.168.121.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
valid_lft 3523sec preferred_lft 3523sec
inet6 fe80::5054:ff:fee9:40f2/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
Conclusion
You have learned how to assign a static IP address on your Ubuntu 18.04 machine. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
The following article will guide you on How to assign additional Static IP on Windows Server 2016.