Linux creating or adding new network alias to a network card (NIC)
Q. I would like to create alias for my network card (NIC). How do I setup 2 IP address on One NIC? How do I add alias?
A. Linux allows you to add additional network address using alias feature. Please note that all additional network IP address must be in same subnet. For example if your eth0 using 192.168.1.5 IP address then alias must be setup using 192.168.1.0/24 subnet.
ifconfig command line
You can use ifconfig command to configure a network interface and alias. For example:
- eth0 NIC IP 192.168.1.5
- eth0:0 first NIC alias: 192.168.1.6
To setup eth0:0 alias type the following command as the root user:
# ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.1.6 up
Verify alias is up and running using following command:
# ifconfig -a
# ping 192.168.1.6
However, if you reboot the system you will lost all your alias. To make it permanent you need to add it network configuration file.
Debian / Ubuntu Linux Instructions
You can configure the additional IP addresses automatically at boot with another iface statement in /etc/network/interfaces:
# vi /etc/network/interfaces
Append text as follows:
auto eth0:1 iface eth0:1 inet static name Ethernet alias LAN card address 192.168.1.7 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 network 192.168.1.0
Save and close the file. Restart the network:
# /etc/init.d/networking restart
Red Hat / RHEL / CentOS / Fedora Linux Instructions
Copy etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file as /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0
# cp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0
Open file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0 using vi text editor:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0
Find entry that read as follows:
DEVICE=eth0
Replace with:
DEVICE=eth0:0
Find entry that read as follows:
IPADDR=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Replace it with your actual IP address:
IPADDR=192.168.1.7
At the end your file should like as follows:
DEVICE=eth0:0 IPADDR=192.168.1.7 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=192.168.1.0 ONBOOT=yes NAME=eth0:0
Open file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and make sure file does not have a GATEWAY= entry:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Find the entry that read as follows:
GATEWAY=your-ip
Remove or comment it out by prefixing # (hash) :
# GATEWAY=192.168.1.254
Save the file. Add the GATEWAY= to your /etc/sysconfig/network:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network
Append or modify GATEWAY entry:
GATEWAY=192.168.1.254
Save the file. Reboot the system or run the following command:
# ifup eth0:0
OR
# service network restart
Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora Multiple IP address range
You can assign multiple ip address range as follows to eth0:
vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0-range0
Append following code from 202.54.112.120 to 202.54.112.140:
IPADDR_START=202.54.112.120 IPADDR_END=202.54.112.140 CLONENUM_START=0 NETMASK=255.255.255.0
Save and close the file.
See also:
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Related Other Helpful FAQs:
- Linux / FreeBSD: Multiple IP Addresses on One Interface
- Linux: Find out which network card or NIC server is bind or running on
- How do I use shell aliases under Linux?
- Pass command line argument to bash alias command
- Redhat network interface configuration
Discussion on This FAQ
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Tags: /etc/network/interfaces, centos ip alias, configuration file, etc network, fedora linux, iface, ifconfig command, ip addresses, lan card, network address, network configuration, network interface, network ip address, network scripts, red hat, redhat ip alias, subnet, sysconfig
April 16th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Hello there
I am using Linux enterprise 4 on my Toshipa Laptop but it didn’t recognizing my NIC so I had to ask for the NIC installation file so I get and this is the name of the file install_8_37[1].tar but I dont know what to do after that ,so i need any help to do this but just please make simple and much details as much as you can because I am not quite expert.