Setting Up a CentOS / Red Hat Linux DHCP Client

by on March 15, 2008 · 5 comments· last updated at March 15, 2008

Q. How do I setup my Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora Linux system to get IP address and other information via a DHCP server for eth0 interface?

A. You can edit eth0 configuration file to switch between static and dhcp networking configuration under RHEL / Fedora or CentOS Linux. Simply edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file.

Backup existing static configuration

First backup existing network configuration file using cp command:
# cp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /root/ifcfg-eth0.bak

Configuring a DHCP Client

Setting up a Linux for dhcp can be done by editing file using a text editor such as vi:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Following is sample static configuration:
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
HWADDR=00:19:D1:2A:BA:A8
IPADDR=10.10.29.66
NETMASK=255.255.255.192
ONBOOT=yes

Replace static configuration with DHCP:
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:19:D1:2A:BA:A8
ONBOOT=yes

Save and close the file. Just restart network service:
# /etc/init.d/network restart
Please note that you need a configuration file for each device that you want to configure to use DHCP.



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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Ria July 13, 2009 at 12:35 pm

This info was of great help!

Reply

2 PM September 15, 2010 at 3:26 pm

thx!
Actually on F13 minimal you have to create the mentioned file! but still works very great :)

Reply

3 Nathan November 4, 2010 at 4:16 pm

Is there any post around about configuring dhcp server on CentOS/Redhat?!!

Reply

4 Hemant Parmar December 8, 2011 at 12:14 pm

in my system have same problem but when i am restarting my computing again eth0.bak is coming..please help me. i done everything but it is not working.

Reply

5 Arnau February 1, 2012 at 9:20 am

It works like a charm! Thanks a lot

Reply

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