Netplan Documentation#

Reference#

Netplan’s configuration files use the YAML format. All /{lib,etc,run}/netplan/*.yaml are considered.

The top-level node in a netplan configuration file is a network: mapping that contains version: 2 (the YAML currently being used by curtin, MaaS, etc. is version 1), and then device definitions grouped by their type, such as ethernets:, modems:, wifis:, or bridges:. These are the types that our renderer can understand and are supported by our backends.

YAML configuration#

Introduction#

Distribution installers, cloud instantiation, image builds for particular devices, or any other way to deploy an operating system put its desired network configuration into YAML configuration file(s). During early boot, the netplan “network renderer” runs which reads /{lib,etc,run}/netplan/*.yaml and writes configuration to /run to hand off control of devices to the specified networking daemon.

Configured devices get handled by systemd-networkd by default, unless explicitly marked as managed by a specific renderer (NetworkManager)
Devices not covered by the network config do not get touched at all.
Usable in initramfs (few dependencies and fast)
No persistent generated config, only original YAML config
Parser supports multiple config files to allow applications like libvirt or lxd to package up expected network config (virbr0, lxdbr0), or to change the global default policy to use NetworkManager for everything.
Retains the flexibility to change backends/policy later or adjust to removing NetworkManager, as generated configuration is ephemeral.

General structure#

netplan’s configuration files use the YAML format. All /{lib,etc,run}/netplan/*.yaml are considered. Lexicographically later files (regardless of in which directory they are) amend (new mapping keys) or override (same mapping keys) previous ones. A file in /run/netplan completely shadows a file with same name in /etc/netplan, and a file in either of those directories shadows a file with the same name in /lib/netplan.

Each type block contains device definitions as a map where the keys (called “configuration IDs”) are defined as below.

Device configuration IDs#

The key names below the per-device-type definition maps (like ethernets:) are called “ID”s. They must be unique throughout the entire set of configuration files. Their primary purpose is to serve as anchor names for composite devices, for example to enumerate the members of a bridge that is currently being defined.

(Since 0.97) If an interface is defined with an ID in a configuration file; it will be brought up by the applicable renderer. To not have netplan touch an interface at all, it should be completely omitted from the netplan configuration files.

There are two physically/structurally different classes of device definitions, and the ID field has a different interpretation for each:

Physical devices

(Examples: ethernet, modem, wifi) These can dynamically come and go between reboots and even during runtime (hot plugging). In the generic case, they can be selected by match: rules on desired properties, such as name/name pattern, MAC address, driver, or device paths. In general these will match any number of devices (unless they refer to properties which are unique such as the full path or MAC address), so without further knowledge about the hardware these will always be considered as a group.

It is valid to specify no match rules at all, in which case the ID field is simply the interface name to be matched. This is mostly useful if you want to keep simple cases simple, and it’s how network device configuration has been done for a long time.

If there are match: rules, then the ID field is a purely opaque name which is only being used for references from definitions of compound devices in the config.

Virtual devices

(Examples: veth, bridge, bond, vrf) These are fully under the control of the config file(s) and the network stack. I. e. these devices are being created instead of matched. Thus match: and set-name: are not applicable for these, and the ID field is the name of the created virtual device.

Common properties for physical device types#

Note: Some options will not work reliably for devices matched by name only and rendered by networkd, due to interactions with device renaming in udev. Match devices by MAC when setting options like: wakeonlan or *-offload.

match (mapping)

This selects a subset of available physical devices by various hardware properties. The following configuration will then apply to all matching devices, as soon as they appear. All specified properties must match.
- name (scalar)
  
  Current interface name. Globs are supported, and the primary use case for matching on names, as selecting one fixed name can be more easily achieved with having no match: at all and just using the ID (see above). (NetworkManager: as of v1.14.0)
- macaddress (scalar)
  
  Device’s 6-byte MAC address in the form “XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX” or 20 bytes for InfiniBand devices (IPoIB). Globs are not allowed.
- driver (scalar or sequence of scalars) – sequence since 0.104
  
  Kernel driver name, corresponding to the DRIVER udev property. A sequence of globs is supported, any of which must match. Matching on driver is only supported with networkd.
Examples:
- All cards on second PCI bus:
```
match:
  name: enp2*
```
- Fixed MAC address:
```
match:
  macaddress: 11:22:33:AA:BB:FF
```
- First card of driver ixgbe:
```
match:
  driver: ixgbe
  name: en*s0
```
- First card with a driver matching bcmgenet or smsc*:
```
match:
  driver: ["bcmgenet", "smsc*"]
  name: en*
```
set-name (scalar)

When matching on unique properties such as path or MAC, or with additional assumptions such as “there will only ever be one wifi device”, match rules can be written so that they only match one device. Then this property can be used to give that device a more specific/desirable/nicer name than the default from udev’s ifnames. Any additional device that satisfies the match rules will then fail to get renamed and keep the original kernel name (and dmesg will show an error).
wakeonlan (bool)

Enable wake on LAN. Off by default.
emit-lldp (bool) – since 0.99

(networkd backend only) Whether to emit LLDP packets. Off by default.
receive-checksum-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the hardware offload for checksumming of ingress network packets is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
transmit-checksum-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the hardware offload for checksumming of egress network packets is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
tcp-segmentation-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
tcp6-segmentation-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the TCP6 Segmentation Offload (tx-tcp6-segmentation) is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
generic-segmentation-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the Generic Segmentation Offload (GSO) is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
generic-receive-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the Generic Receive Offload (GRO) is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
large-receive-offload (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) If set to true (false), the Large Receive Offload (LRO) is enabled (disabled). When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.
openvswitch (mapping) – since 0.100

This provides additional configuration for the openvswitch network device. If Open vSwitch is not available on the system, netplan treats the presence of openvswitch configuration as an error.

Any supported network device that is declared with the openvswitch mapping (or any bond/bridge that includes an interface with an openvswitch configuration) will be created in openvswitch instead of the defined renderer. In the case of a vlan definition declared the same way, netplan will create a fake VLAN bridge in openvswitch with the requested vlan properties.
- external-ids (mapping) – since 0.100
  
  Passed-through directly to Open vSwitch
- other-config (mapping) – since 0.100
  
  Passed-through directly to Open vSwitch
- lacp (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for bond interfaces. Accepts active, passive or off (the default).
- fail-mode (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for bridge interfaces. Accepts secure or standalone (the default).
- mcast-snooping (bool) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for bridge interfaces. False by default.
- protocols (sequence of scalars) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for bridge interfaces or the network section. List of protocols to be used when negotiating a connection with the controller. Accepts OpenFlow10, OpenFlow11, OpenFlow12, OpenFlow13, OpenFlow14, OpenFlow15 and OpenFlow16.
- rstp (bool) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for bridge interfaces. False by default.
- controller (mapping) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for bridge interfaces. Specify an external OpenFlow controller.
  - addresses (sequence of scalars)
    
    Set the list of addresses to use for the controller targets. The syntax of these addresses is as defined in ovs-vsctl(8). Example: addresses: [tcp:127.0.0.1:6653, "ssl:[fe80::1234%eth0]:6653"]
  - connection-mode (scalar)
    
    Set the connection mode for the controller. Supported options are in-band and out-of-band. The default is in-band.
- ports (sequence of sequence of scalars) – since 0.100
  
  Open vSwitch patch ports. Each port is declared as a pair of names which can be referenced as interfaces in dependent virtual devices (bonds, bridges).
  
  Example:
```
openvswitch:
  ports:
    - [patch0-1, patch1-0]
```
- ssl (mapping) – since 0.100
  
  Valid for global openvswitch settings. Options for configuring SSL server endpoint for the switch.
  - ca-cert (scalar)
    
    Path to a file containing the CA certificate to be used.
  - certificate (scalar)
    
    Path to a file containing the server certificate.
  - private-key (scalar)
    
    Path to a file containing the private key for the server.

Common properties for all device types#

renderer (scalar)

Use the given networking backend for this definition. Currently supported are networkd and NetworkManager. This property can be specified globally in network:, for a device type (in e. g. ethernets:) or for a particular device definition. Default is networkd.

(Since 0.99) The renderer property has one additional acceptable value for vlan objects (i. e. defined in vlans:): sriov. If a vlan is defined with the sriov renderer for an SR-IOV Virtual Function interface, this causes netplan to set up a hardware VLAN filter for it. There can be only one defined per VF.
dhcp4 (bool)

Enable DHCP for IPv4. Off by default.
dhcp6 (bool)

Enable DHCP for IPv6. Off by default. This covers both stateless DHCP - where the DHCP server supplies information like DNS nameservers but not the IP address - and stateful DHCP, where the server provides both the address and the other information.

If you are in an IPv6-only environment with completely stateless auto-configuration (SLAAC with RDNSS), this option can be set to cause the interface to be brought up. (Setting accept-ra alone is not sufficient.) Auto-configuration will still honor the contents of the router advertisement and only use DHCP if requested in the RA.

Note that rdnssd(8) is required to use RDNSS with networkd. No extra software is required for NetworkManager.
ipv6-mtu (scalar) – since 0.98

Set the IPv6 MTU (only supported with networkd backend). Note that needing to set this is an unusual requirement.

Requires feature: ipv6-mtu
ipv6-privacy (bool)

Enable IPv6 Privacy Extensions (RFC 4941) for the specified interface, and prefer temporary addresses. Defaults to false - no privacy extensions. There is currently no way to have a private address but prefer the public address.
link-local (sequence of scalars)

Configure the link-local addresses to bring up. Valid options are ‘ipv4’ and ‘ipv6’, which respectively allow enabling IPv4 and IPv6 link local addressing. If this field is not defined, the default is to enable only IPv6 link-local addresses. If the field is defined but configured as an empty set, IPv6 link-local addresses are disabled as well as IPv4 link- local addresses.

This feature enables or disables link-local addresses for a protocol, but the actual implementation differs per backend. On networkd, this directly changes the behavior and may add an extra address on an interface. When using the NetworkManager backend, enabling link-local has no effect if the interface also has DHCP enabled.

Examples:
- Enable only IPv4 link-local: link-local: [ ipv4 ]
- Enable all link-local addresses: link-local: [ ipv4, ipv6 ]
- Disable all link-local addresses: link-local: [ ]
ignore-carrier (bool) – since 0.104

(networkd backend only) Allow the specified interface to be configured even if it has no carrier.
critical (bool)

Designate the connection as “critical to the system”, meaning that special care will be taken by to not release the assigned IP when the daemon is restarted. (not recognized by NetworkManager)
dhcp-identifier (scalar)

(networkd backend only) Sets the source of DHCPv4 client identifier. If mac is specified, the MAC address of the link is used. If this option is omitted, or if duid is specified, networkd will generate an RFC4361-compliant client identifier for the interface by combining the link’s IAID and DUID.
dhcp4-overrides (mapping)

(networkd backend only) Overrides default DHCP behavior; see the DHCP Overrides section below.
dhcp6-overrides (mapping)

(networkd backend only) Overrides default DHCP behavior; see the DHCP Overrides section below.
accept-ra (bool)

Accept Router Advertisement that would have the kernel configure IPv6 by itself. When enabled, accept Router Advertisements. When disabled, do not respond to Router Advertisements. If unset use the host kernel default setting.
addresses (sequence of scalars and mappings)

Add static addresses to the interface in addition to the ones received through DHCP or RA. Each sequence entry is in CIDR notation, i. e. of the form addr/prefixlen. addr is an IPv4 or IPv6 address as recognized by inet_pton(3) and prefixlen the number of bits of the subnet.

For virtual devices (bridges, bonds, vlan) if there is no address configured and DHCP is disabled, the interface may still be brought online, but will not be addressable from the network.

In addition to the addresses themselves one can specify configuration parameters as mappings. Current supported options are:
- lifetime (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  Default: forever. This can be forever or 0 and corresponds to the PreferredLifetime option in systemd-networkd’s Address section. Currently supported on the networkd backend only.
- label (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  An IP address label, equivalent to the ip address label command. Currently supported on the networkd backend only.
Examples:
- Simple: addresses: [192.168.14.2/24, "2001:1::1/64"]
- Advanced:
```
ethernets:
  eth0:
    addresses:
      - "10.0.0.15/24":
          lifetime: 0
          label: "maas"
      - "2001:1::1/64"
```
ipv6-address-generation (scalar) – since 0.99

Configure method for creating the address for use with RFC4862 IPv6 Stateless Address Auto-configuration (only supported with NetworkManager backend). Possible values are eui64 or stable-privacy.
ipv6-address-token (scalar) – since 0.100

Define an IPv6 address token for creating a static interface identifier for IPv6 Stateless Address Auto-configuration. This is mutually exclusive with ipv6-address-generation.
gateway4, gateway6 (scalar)

Deprecated, see Default routes. Set default gateway for IPv4/6, for manual address configuration. This requires setting addresses too. Gateway IPs must be in a form recognized by inet_pton(3). There should only be a single gateway per IP address family set in your global config, to make it unambiguous. If you need multiple default routes, please define them via routing-policy.

Examples
- IPv4: gateway4: 172.16.0.1
- IPv6: gateway6: "2001:4::1"
nameservers (mapping)

Set DNS servers and search domains, for manual address configuration. There are two supported fields: addresses: is a list of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses similar to gateway*, and search: is a list of search domains.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  id0:
    [...]
    nameservers:
      search: [lab, home]
      addresses: [8.8.8.8, "FEDC::1"]
```
macaddress (scalar)

Set the device’s MAC address. The MAC address must be in the form “XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX”.

Note: This will not work reliably for devices matched by name only and rendered by networkd, due to interactions with device renaming in udev. Match devices by MAC when setting MAC addresses.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  id0:
    match:
      macaddress: 52:54:00:6b:3c:58
    [...]
    macaddress: 52:54:00:6b:3c:59
```
mtu (scalar)

Set the Maximum Transmission Unit for the interface. The default is 1500. Valid values depend on your network interface.

Note: This will not work reliably for devices matched by name only and rendered by networkd, due to interactions with device renaming in udev. Match devices by MAC when setting MTU.
optional (bool)

An optional device is not required for booting. Normally, networkd will wait some time for device to become configured before proceeding with booting. However, if a device is marked as optional, networkd will not wait for it. This is only supported by networkd, and the default is false.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  eth7:
    # this is plugged into a test network that is often
    # down - don't wait for it to come up during boot.
    dhcp4: true
    optional: true
```
optional-addresses (sequence of scalars)

Specify types of addresses that are not required for a device to be considered online. This changes the behavior of backends at boot time to avoid waiting for addresses that are marked optional, and thus consider the interface as “usable” sooner. This does not disable these addresses, which will be brought up anyway.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  eth7:
    dhcp4: true
    dhcp6: true
    optional-addresses: [ ipv4-ll, dhcp6 ]
```
activation-mode (scalar) – since 0.103

Allows specifying the management policy of the selected interface. By default, netplan brings up any configured interface if possible. Using the activation-mode setting users can override that behavior by either specifying manual, to hand over control over the interface state to the administrator or (for networkd backend only) off to force the link in a down state at all times. Any interface with activation-mode defined is implicitly considered optional. Supported officially as of networkd v248+.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  eth1:
    # this interface will not be put into an UP state automatically
    dhcp4: true
    activation-mode: manual
```
routes (sequence of mappings)

Configure static routing for the device; see the Routing section below.
routing-policy (sequence of mappings)

Configure policy routing for the device; see the Routing section below.
neigh-suppress (scalar) – since 0.105

Takes a boolean. Configures whether ARP and ND neighbor suppression is enabled for this port. When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.

DHCP Overrides#

Several DHCP behavior overrides are available. Most currently only have any effect when using the networkd backend, with the exception of use-routes and route-metric.

Overrides only have an effect if the corresponding dhcp4 or dhcp6 is set to true.

If both dhcp4 and dhcp6 are true, the networkd backend requires that dhcp4-overrides and dhcp6-overrides contain the same keys and values. If the values do not match, an error will be shown and the network configuration will not be applied.

When using the NetworkManager backend, different values may be specified for dhcp4-overrides and dhcp6-overrides, and will be applied to the DHCP client processes as specified in the netplan YAML.

dhcp4-overrides, dhcp6-overrides (mapping)

The dhcp4-overrides and `dhcp6-override`` mappings override the default DHCP behavior.
- use-dns (bool)
  
  Default: true. When true, the DNS servers received from the DHCP server will be used and take precedence over any statically configured ones. Currently only has an effect on the networkd backend.
- use-ntp (bool)
  
  Default: true. When true, the NTP servers received from the DHCP server will be used by systemd-timesyncd and take precedence over any statically configured ones. Currently only has an effect on the networkd backend.
- send-hostname (bool)
  
  Default: true. When true, the machine’s hostname will be sent to the DHCP server. Currently only has an effect on the networkd backend.
- use-hostname (bool)
  
  Default: true. When true, the hostname received from the DHCP server will be set as the transient hostname of the system. Currently only has an effect on the networkd backend.
- use-mtu (bool)
  
  Default: true. When true, the MTU received from the DHCP server will be set as the MTU of the network interface. When false, the MTU advertised by the DHCP server will be ignored. Currently only has an effect on the networkd backend.
- hostname (scalar)
  
  Use this value for the hostname which is sent to the DHCP server, instead of machine’s hostname. Currently only has an effect on the networkd backend.
- use-routes (bool)
  
  Default: true. When true, the routes received from the DHCP server will be installed in the routing table normally. When set to false, routes from the DHCP server will be ignored: in this case, the user is responsible for adding static routes if necessary for correct network operation. This allows users to avoid installing a default gateway for interfaces configured via DHCP. Available for both the networkd and NetworkManager backends.
- route-metric (scalar)
  
  Use this value for default metric for automatically-added routes. Use this to prioritize routes for devices by setting a lower metric on a preferred interface. Available for both the networkd and NetworkManager backends.
- use-domains (scalar) – since 0.98
  
  Takes a boolean, or the special value “route”. When true, the domain name received from the DHCP server will be used as DNS search domain over this link, similar to the effect of the Domains= setting. If set to “route”, the domain name received from the DHCP server will be used for routing DNS queries only, but not for searching, similar to the effect of the Domains= setting when the argument is prefixed with “~”.
  
  Requires feature: dhcp-use-domains

Routing#

Complex routing is possible with netplan. Standard static routes as well as policy routing using routing tables are supported via the networkd backend.

These options are available for all types of interfaces.

Default routes#

The most common need for routing concerns the definition of default routes to reach the wider Internet. Those default routes can only defined once per IP family and routing table. A typical example would look like the following:

eth0:
  [...]
  routes:
    - to: default # could be 0/0 or 0.0.0.0/0 optionally
      via: 10.0.0.1
      metric: 100
      on-link: true
    - to: default # could be ::/0 optionally
      via: cf02:de:ad:be:ef::2
eth1:
  [...]
  routes:
    - to: default
      via: 172.134.67.1
      metric: 100
      on-link: true
      # Not on the main routing table,
      # does not conflict with the eth0 default route
      table: 76

routes (mapping)

The routes block defines standard static routes for an interface. At least to must be specified. If type is local or nat a default scope of host is assumed. If type is unicast and no gateway (via) is given or type is broadcast, multicast or anycast a default scope of link is assumed. Otherwise, a global scope is the default setting.

For from, to, and via, both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are recognized, and must be in the form addr/prefixlen or addr.
- from (scalar)
  
  Set a source IP address for traffic going through the route. (NetworkManager: as of v1.8.0)
- to (scalar)
  
  Destination address for the route.
- via (scalar)
  
  Address to the gateway to use for this route.
- on-link (bool)
  
  When set to “true”, specifies that the route is directly connected to the interface. (NetworkManager: as of v1.12.0 for IPv4 and v1.18.0 for IPv6)
- metric (scalar)
  
  The relative priority of the route. Must be a positive integer value.
- type (scalar)
  
  The type of route. Valid options are “unicast” (default), “anycast”, “blackhole”, “broadcast”, “local”, “multicast”, “nat”, “prohibit”, “throw”, “unreachable” or “xresolve”.
- scope (scalar)
  
  The route scope, how wide-ranging it is to the network. Possible values are “global”, “link”, or “host”.
- table (scalar)
  
  The table number to use for the route. In some scenarios, it may be useful to set routes in a separate routing table. It may also be used to refer to routing policy rules which also accept a table parameter. Allowed values are positive integers starting from 1. Some values are already in use to refer to specific routing tables: see /etc/iproute2/rt_tables. (NetworkManager: as of v1.10.0)
- mtu (scalar) – since 0.101
  
  The MTU to be used for the route, in bytes. Must be a positive integer value.
- congestion-window (scalar) – since 0.102
  
  The congestion window to be used for the route, represented by number of segments. Must be a positive integer value.
- advertised-receive-window (scalar) – since 0.102
  
  The receive window to be advertised for the route, represented by number of segments. Must be a positive integer value.
routing-policy (mapping)

The routing-policy block defines extra routing policy for a network, where traffic may be handled specially based on the source IP, firewall marking, etc.

For from, to, both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are recognized, and must be in the form addr/prefixlen or addr.
- from (scalar)
  
  Set a source IP address to match traffic for this policy rule.
- to (scalar)
  
  Match on traffic going to the specified destination.
- table (scalar)
  
  The table number to match for the route. In some scenarios, it may be useful to set routes in a separate routing table. It may also be used to refer to routes which also accept a table parameter. Allowed values are positive integers starting from 1. Some values are already in use to refer to specific routing tables: see /etc/iproute2/rt_tables.
- priority (scalar)
  
  Specify a priority for the routing policy rule, to influence the order in which routing rules are processed. A higher number means lower priority: rules are processed in order by increasing priority number.
- mark (scalar)
  
  Have this routing policy rule match on traffic that has been marked by the iptables firewall with this value. Allowed values are positive integers starting from 1.
- type-of-service (scalar)
  
  Match this policy rule based on the type of service number applied to the traffic.

Authentication#

Netplan supports advanced authentication settings for ethernet and wifi interfaces, as well as individual wifi networks, by means of the auth block.

auth (mapping)

Specifies authentication settings for a device of type ethernets:, or an access-points: entry on a wifis: device.

The auth block supports the following properties:
- key-management (scalar)
  
  The supported key management modes are none (no key management); psk (WPA with pre-shared key, common for home wifi); eap (WPA with EAP, common for enterprise wifi); and 802.1x (used primarily for wired Ethernet connections).
- password (scalar)
  
  The password string for EAP, or the pre-shared key for WPA-PSK.
  
  The following properties can be used if key-management is eap or 802.1x:
- method (scalar)
  
  The EAP method to use. The supported EAP methods are tls (TLS), peap (Protected EAP), and ttls (Tunneled TLS).
- identity (scalar)
  
  The identity to use for EAP.
- anonymous-identity (scalar)
  
  The identity to pass over the unencrypted channel if the chosen EAP method supports passing a different tunnelled identity.
- ca-certificate (scalar)
  
  Path to a file with one or more trusted certificate authority (CA) certificates.
- client-certificate (scalar)
  
  Path to a file containing the certificate to be used by the client during authentication.
- client-key (scalar)
  
  Path to a file containing the private key corresponding to client-certificate.
- client-key-password (scalar)
  
  Password to use to decrypt the private key specified in client-key if it is encrypted.
- phase2-auth (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Phase 2 authentication mechanism.

Properties for device type `ethernets:`#

Ethernet device definitions, beyond common ones described above, also support some additional properties that can be used for SR-IOV devices.

link (scalar) – since 0.99

(SR-IOV devices only) The link property declares the device as a Virtual Function of the selected Physical Function device, as identified by the given netplan id.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  enp1: {...}
  enp1s16f1:
    link: enp1
```
virtual-function-count (scalar) – since 0.99

(SR-IOV devices only) In certain special cases VFs might need to be configured outside of netplan. For such configurations virtual-function-count can be optionally used to set an explicit number of Virtual Functions for the given Physical Function. If unset, the default is to create only as many VFs as are defined in the netplan configuration. This should be used for special cases only.

Requires feature: sriov
embedded-switch-mode (scalar) – since 0.104

(SR-IOV devices only) Change the operational mode of the embedded switch of a supported SmartNIC PCI device (e.g. Mellanox ConnectX-5). Possible values are switchdev or legacy, if unspecified the vendor’s default configuration is used.

Requires feature: eswitch-mode
delay-virtual-functions-rebind (bool) – since 0.104

(SR-IOV devices only) Delay rebinding of SR-IOV virtual functions to its driver after changing the embedded-switch-mode setting to a later stage. Can be enabled when bonding/VF LAG is in use. Defaults to false.

Requires feature: eswitch-mode
infiniband-mode (scalar) – since 0.105

(InfiniBand devices only) Change the operational mode of a IPoIB device. Possible values are datagram or connected. If unspecified the kernel’s default configuration is used.

Requires feature: infiniband

Properties for device type `modems:`#

GSM/CDMA modem configuration is only supported for the NetworkManager backend. systemd-networkd does not support modems.

Requires feature: modems

apn (scalar) – since 0.99

Set the carrier APN (Access Point Name). This can be omitted if auto-config is enabled.
auto-config (bool) – since 0.99

Specify whether to try and auto-configure the modem by doing a lookup of the carrier against the Mobile Broadband Provider database. This may not work for all carriers.
device-id (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the device ID (as given by the WWAN management service) of the modem to match. This can be found using mmcli.
network-id (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the Network ID (GSM LAI format). If this is specified, the device will not roam networks.
number (scalar) – since 0.99

The number to dial to establish the connection to the mobile broadband network. (Deprecated for GSM)
password (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the password used to authenticate with the carrier network. This can be omitted if auto-config is enabled.
pin (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the SIM PIN to allow it to operate if a PIN is set.
sim-id (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the SIM unique identifier (as given by the WWAN management service) which this connection applies to. If given, the connection will apply to any device also allowed by device-id which contains a SIM card matching the given identifier.
sim-operator-id (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the MCC/MNC string (such as “310260” or “21601”) which identifies the carrier that this connection should apply to. If given, the connection will apply to any device also allowed by device-id and sim-id which contains a SIM card provisioned by the given operator.
username (scalar) – since 0.99

Specify the username used to authenticate with the carrier network. This can be omitted if auto-config is enabled.

Properties for device type `wifis:`#

Note that systemd-networkd does not natively support wifi, so you need wpasupplicant installed if you let the networkd renderer handle wifi.

access-points (mapping)

This provides pre-configured connections to NetworkManager. Note that users can of course select other access points/SSIDs. The keys of the mapping are the SSIDs, and the values are mappings with the following supported properties:
- password (scalar)
  Enable WPA2 authentication and set the passphrase for it. If neither this nor an auth block are given, the network is assumed to be open. The setting
  password: "S3kr1t"
  is equivalent to
  auth: key-management: psk password: "S3kr1t"
- mode (scalar)
  
  Possible access point modes are infrastructure (the default), ap (create an access point to which other devices can connect), and adhoc (peer to peer networks without a central access point). ap is only supported with NetworkManager.
- bssid (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  If specified, directs the device to only associate with the given access point.
- band (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Possible bands are 5GHz (for 5GHz 802.11a) and 2.4GHz (for 2.4GHz 802.11), do not restrict the 802.11 frequency band of the network if unset (the default).
- channel (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Wireless channel to use for the Wi-Fi connection. Because channel numbers overlap between bands, this property takes effect only if the band property is also set.
- hidden (bool) – since 0.100
  
  Set to true to change the SSID scan technique for connecting to hidden WiFi networks. Note this may have slower performance compared to false (the default) when connecting to publicly broadcast SSIDs.
wakeonwlan (sequence of scalars) – since 0.99

This enables WakeOnWLan on supported devices. Not all drivers support all options. May be any combination of any, disconnect, magic_pkt, gtk_rekey_failure, eap_identity_req, four_way_handshake, rfkill_release or tcp (NetworkManager only). Or the exclusive default flag (the default).
regulatory-domain (scalar) – since 0.105

This can be used to define the radio’s regulatory domain, to make use of additional WiFi channels outside the “world domain”. Takes an ISO / IEC 3166 country code (like GB) or 00 to reset to the “world domain”. See wireless-regdb for available values.

Requires dependency: iw, if it is to be used outside the networkd (wpa_supplicant) backend.

Properties for device type `bridges:`#

interfaces (sequence of scalars)

All devices matching this ID list will be added to the bridge. This may be an empty list, in which case the bridge will be brought online with no member interfaces.

Example:
```
ethernets:
  switchports:
    match: {name: "enp2*"}
[...]
bridges:
  br0:
    interfaces: [switchports]
```
parameters (mapping)

Customization parameters for special bridging options. Time intervals may need to be expressed as a number of seconds or milliseconds: the default value type is specified below. If necessary, time intervals can be qualified using a time suffix (such as “s” for seconds, “ms” for milliseconds) to allow for more control over its behavior.
- ageing-time, aging-time (scalar)
  
  Set the period of time to keep a MAC address in the forwarding database after a packet is received. This maps to the AgeingTimeSec= property when the networkd renderer is used. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as seconds.
- priority (scalar)
  
  Set the priority value for the bridge. This value should be a number between 0 and 65535. Lower values mean higher priority. The bridge with the higher priority will be elected as the root bridge.
- port-priority (scalar)
  
  Set the port priority to . The priority value is a number between 0 and 63. This metric is used in the designated port and root port selection algorithms.
- forward-delay (scalar)
  
  Specify the period of time the bridge will remain in Listening and Learning states before getting to the Forwarding state. This field maps to the ForwardDelaySec= property for the networkd renderer. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as seconds.
- hello-time (scalar)
  
  Specify the interval between two hello packets being sent out from the root and designated bridges. Hello packets communicate information about the network topology. When the networkd renderer is used, this maps to the HelloTimeSec= property. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as seconds.
- max-age (scalar)
  
  Set the maximum age of a hello packet. If the last hello packet is older than that value, the bridge will attempt to become the root bridge. This maps to the MaxAgeSec= property when the networkd renderer is used. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as seconds.
- path-cost (scalar)
  
  Set the cost of a path on the bridge. Faster interfaces should have a lower cost. This allows a finer control on the network topology so that the fastest paths are available whenever possible.
- stp (bool)
  
  Define whether the bridge should use Spanning Tree Protocol. The default value is “true”, which means that Spanning Tree should be used.

Properties for device type `bonds:`#

interfaces (sequence of scalars)

All devices matching this ID list will be added to the bond.

Example:

ethernets:
  switchports:
    match: {name: "enp2*"}
[...]
bonds:
  bond0:
    interfaces: [switchports]

parameters (mapping)

Customization parameters for special bonding options. Time intervals may need to be expressed as a number of seconds or milliseconds: the default value type is specified below. If necessary, time intervals can be qualified using a time suffix (such as “s” for seconds, “ms” for milliseconds) to allow for more control over its behavior.
- mode (scalar)
  
  Set the bonding mode used for the interfaces. The default is balance-rr (round robin). Possible values are balance-rr, active-backup, balance-xor, broadcast, 802.3ad, balance-tlb, and balance-alb. For Open vSwitch active-backup and the additional modes balance-tcp and balance-slb are supported.
- lacp-rate (scalar)
  
  Set the rate at which LACPDUs are transmitted. This is only useful in 802.3ad mode. Possible values are slow (30 seconds, default), and fast (every second).
- mii-monitor-interval (scalar)
  
  Specifies the interval for MII monitoring (verifying if an interface of the bond has carrier). The default is 0; which disables MII monitoring. This is equivalent to the MIIMonitorSec= field for the networkd backend. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as milliseconds.
- min-links (scalar)
  
  The minimum number of links up in a bond to consider the bond interface to be up.
- transmit-hash-policy (scalar)
  
  Specifies the transmit hash policy for the selection of slaves. This is only useful in balance-xor, 802.3ad and balance-tlb modes. Possible values are layer2, layer3+4, layer2+3, encap2+3, and encap3+4.
- ad-select (scalar)
  
  Set the aggregation selection mode. Possible values are stable, bandwidth, and count. This option is only used in 802.3ad mode.
- all-slaves-active (bool)
  
  If the bond should drop duplicate frames received on inactive ports, set this option to false. If they should be delivered, set this option to true. The default value is false, and is the desirable behavior in most situations.
- arp-interval (scalar)
  
  Set the interval value for how frequently ARP link monitoring should happen. The default value is 0, which disables ARP monitoring. For the networkd backend, this maps to the ARPIntervalSec= property. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as milliseconds.
- arp-ip-targets (sequence of scalars)
  
  IPs of other hosts on the link which should be sent ARP requests in order to validate that a slave is up. This option is only used when arp-interval is set to a value other than 0. At least one IP address must be given for ARP link monitoring to function. Only IPv4 addresses are supported. You can specify up to 16 IP addresses. The default value is an empty list.
- arp-validate (scalar)
  
  Configure how ARP replies are to be validated when using ARP link monitoring. Possible values are none, active, backup, and all.
- arp-all-targets (scalar)
  
  Specify whether to use any ARP IP target being up as sufficient for a slave to be considered up; or if all the targets must be up. This is only used for active-backup mode when arp-validate is enabled. Possible values are any and all.
- up-delay (scalar)
  
  Specify the delay before enabling a link once the link is physically up. The default value is 0. This maps to the UpDelaySec= property for the networkd renderer. This option is only valid for the miimon link monitor. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as milliseconds.
- down-delay (scalar)
  
  Specify the delay before disabling a link once the link has been lost. The default value is 0. This maps to the DownDelaySec= property for the networkd renderer. This option is only valid for the miimon link monitor. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as milliseconds.
- fail-over-mac-policy (scalar)
  
  Set whether to set all slaves to the same MAC address when adding them to the bond, or how else the system should handle MAC addresses. The possible values are none, active, and follow.
- gratuitous-arp (scalar)
  
  Specify how many ARP packets to send after failover. Once a link is up on a new slave, a notification is sent and possibly repeated if this value is set to a number greater than 1. The default value is 1 and valid values are between 1 and 255. This only affects active-backup mode.
  
  For historical reasons, the misspelling gratuitious-arp is also accepted and has the same function.
- packets-per-slave (scalar)
  
  In balance-rr mode, specifies the number of packets to transmit on a slave before switching to the next. When this value is set to 0, slaves are chosen at random. Allowable values are between 0 and 65535. The default value is 1. This setting is only used in balance-rr mode.
- primary-reselect-policy (scalar)
  
  Set the reselection policy for the primary slave. On failure of the active slave, the system will use this policy to decide how the new active slave will be chosen and how recovery will be handled. The possible values are always, better, and failure.
- resend-igmp (scalar)
  
  In modes balance-rr, active-backup, balance-tlb and balance-alb, a failover can switch IGMP traffic from one slave to another.
  
  This parameter specifies how many IGMP membership reports are issued on a failover event. Values range from 0 to 255. 0 disables sending membership reports. Otherwise, the first membership report is sent on failover and subsequent reports are sent at 200ms intervals.
- learn-packet-interval (scalar)
  
  Specify the interval between sending learning packets to each slave. The value range is between 1 and 0x7fffffff. The default value is 1. This option only affects balance-tlb and balance-alb modes. Using the networkd renderer, this field maps to the LearnPacketIntervalSec= property. If no time suffix is specified, the value will be interpreted as seconds.
- primary (scalar)
  
  Specify a device to be used as a primary slave, or preferred device to use as a slave for the bond (i.e. the preferred device to send data through), whenever it is available. This only affects active-backup, balance-alb, and balance-tlb modes.

Properties for device type `tunnels:`#

Tunnels allow traffic to pass as if it was between systems on the same local network, although systems may be far from each other but reachable via the Internet. They may be used to support IPv6 traffic on a network where the ISP does not provide the service, or to extend and “connect” separate local networks. Please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_protocol for more general information about tunnels.

mode (scalar)

Defines the tunnel mode. Valid options are sit, gre, ip6gre, ipip, ipip6, ip6ip6, vti, vti6, wireguard and vxlan. Additionally, the networkd backend also supports gretap and ip6gretap modes. In addition, the NetworkManager backend supports isatap tunnels.
local (scalar)

Defines the address of the local endpoint of the tunnel. (For VXLAN) This should match one of the parent’s IP addresses or make use of the networkd special values.
remote (scalar)

Defines the address of the remote endpoint of the tunnel or multicast group IP address for VXLAN.
ttl (scalar) – since 0.103

Defines the Time To Live (TTL) of the tunnel. Takes a number in the range 1..255.
key (scalar or mapping)

Define keys to use for the tunnel. The key can be a number or a dotted quad (an IPv4 address). For wireguard it can be a base64-encoded private key or (as of networkd v242+) an absolute path to a file, containing the private key (since 0.100). It is used for identification of IP transforms. This is only required for vti and vti6 when using the networkd backend.

This field may be used as a scalar (meaning that a single key is specified and to be used for input, output and private key), or as a mapping, where you can further specify input/output/private.
- input (scalar)
  
  The input key for the tunnel
- output (scalar)
  
  The output key for the tunnel
- private (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  A base64-encoded private key required for WireGuard tunnels. When the systemd-networkd backend (v242+) is used, this can also be an absolute path to a file containing the private key.

keys (scalar or mapping)

Alternate name for the key field. See above.

Examples:

tunnels:
  tun0:
    mode: gre
    local: ...
    remote: ...
    keys:
      input: 1234
      output: 5678

tunnels:
  tun0:
    mode: vti6
    local: ...
    remote: ...
    key: 59568549

tunnels:
  wg0:
    mode: wireguard
    addresses: [...]
    peers:
      - keys:
          public: rlbInAj0qV69CysWPQY7KEBnKxpYCpaWqOs/dLevdWc=
          shared: /path/to/shared.key
        ...
    key: mNb7OIIXTdgW4khM7OFlzJ+UPs7lmcWHV7xjPgakMkQ=

tunnels:
  wg0:
    mode: wireguard
    addresses: [...]
    peers:
      - keys:
          public: rlbInAj0qV69CysWPQY7KEBnKxpYCpaWqOs/dLevdWc=
        ...
    keys:
      private: /path/to/priv.key

WireGuard specific keys:

mark (scalar) – since 0.100

Firewall mark for outgoing WireGuard packets from this interface, optional.
port (scalar) – since 0.100

UDP port to listen at or auto. Optional, defaults to auto.
peers (sequence of mappings) – since 0.100

A list of peers, each having keys documented below.

Example:
```
tunnels:
  wg0:
    mode: wireguard
    key: /path/to/private.key
    mark: 42
    port: 5182
    peers:
      - keys:
          public: rlbInAj0qV69CysWPQY7KEBnKxpYCpaWqOs/dLevdWc=
        allowed-ips: [0.0.0.0/0, "2001:fe:ad:de:ad:be:ef:1/24"]
        keepalive: 23
        endpoint: 1.2.3.4:5
      - keys:
          public: M9nt4YujIOmNrRmpIRTmYSfMdrpvE7u6WkG8FY8WjG4=
          shared: /some/shared.key
        allowed-ips: [10.10.10.20/24]
        keepalive: 22
        endpoint: 5.4.3.2:1
```
- endpoint (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  Remote endpoint IPv4/IPv6 address or a hostname, followed by a colon and a port number.
- allowed-ips (sequence of scalars) – since 0.100
  
  A list of IP (v4 or v6) addresses with CIDR masks from which this peer is allowed to send incoming traffic and to which outgoing traffic for this peer is directed. The catch-all 0.0.0.0/0 may be specified for matching all IPv4 addresses, and ::/0 may be specified for matching all IPv6 addresses.
- keepalive (scalar) – since 0.100
  
  An interval in seconds, between 1 and 65535 inclusive, of how often to send an authenticated empty packet to the peer for the purpose of keeping a stateful firewall or NAT mapping valid persistently. Optional.
- keys (mapping) – since 0.100
  
  Define keys to use for the WireGuard peers.
  
  This field can be used as a mapping, where you can further specify the public and shared keys.
  - public (scalar) – since 0.100
    
    A base64-encoded public key, required for WireGuard peers.
  - shared (scalar) – since 0.100
    
    A base64-encoded preshared key. Optional for WireGuard peers. When the systemd-networkd backend (v242+) is used, this can also be an absolute path to a file containing the preshared key.

VXLAN specific keys:

id (scalar) – since 0.105

The VXLAN Network Identifier (VNI or VXLAN Segment ID). Takes a number in the range 1..16777215.
link (scalar) – since 0.105

netplan ID of the parent device definition to which this VXLAN gets connected.
type-of-service (scalar) – since 0.105

The Type Of Service byte value for a vxlan interface.
mac-learning (scalar) – since 0.105

Takes a boolean. When true, enables dynamic MAC learning to discover remote MAC addresses.
ageing, aging (scalar) – since 0.105

The lifetime of Forwarding Database entry learnt by the kernel, in seconds.
limit (scalar) – since 0.105

Configures maximum number of FDB entries.
arp-proxy (scalar) – since 0.105

Takes a boolean. When true, bridge-connected VXLAN tunnel endpoint answers ARP requests from the local bridge on behalf of remote Distributed Overlay Virtual Ethernet (DOVE) clients. Defaults to false.
notifications (sequence of scalars) – since 0.105

Takes the flags l2-miss and l3-miss to enable netlink LLADDR and/or netlink IP address miss notifications.
short-circuit (scalar) – since 0.105

Takes a boolean. When true, route short circuiting is turned on.
checksums (sequence of scalars) – since 0.105

Takes the flags udp, zero-udp6-tx, zero-udp6-rx, remote-tx and remote-rx to enable transmitting UDP checksums in VXLAN/IPv4, send/receive zero checksums in VXLAN/IPv6 and enable sending/receiving checksum offloading in VXLAN.
extensions (sequence of scalars) – since 0.105

Takes the flags group-policy and generic-protocol to enable the “Group Policy” and/or “Generic Protocol” VXLAN extensions.
port (scalar) – since 0.105

Configures the default destination UDP port. If the destination port is not specified then Linux kernel default will be used. Set to 4789 to get the IANA assigned value.
port-range (sequence of scalars) – since 0.105

Configures the source port range for the VXLAN. The kernel assigns the source UDP port based on the flow to help the receiver to do load balancing. When this option is not set, the normal range of local UDP ports is used. Uses the form [LOWER, UPPER].
flow-label (scalar) – since 0.105

Specifies the flow label to use in outgoing packets. The valid range is 0-1048575.
do-not-fragment (scalar) – since 0.105

Allows setting the IPv4 Do not Fragment (DF) bit in outgoing packets. Takes a boolean value. When unset, the kernel’s default will be used.

Properties for device type `vlans:`#

id (scalar)

VLAN ID, a number between 0 and 4094.
link (scalar)

netplan ID of the underlying device definition on which this VLAN gets created.

Example:

ethernets:
  eno1: {...}
vlans:
  en-intra:
    id: 1
    link: eno1
    dhcp4: yes
  en-vpn:
    id: 2
    link: eno1
    addresses: [...]

Properties for device type `vrfs:`#

table (scalar) – since 0.105

The numeric routing table identifier. This setting is compulsory.
interfaces (sequence of scalars) – since 0.105

All devices matching this ID list will be added to the vrf. This may be an empty list, in which case the vrf will be brought online with no member interfaces.
routes (sequence of mappings) – since 0.105

Configure static routing for the device; see the Routing section. The table value is implicitly set to the VRF’s table.
routing-policy (sequence of mappings) – since 0.105

Configure policy routing for the device; see the Routing section. The table value is implicitly set to the VRF’s table.

Example:

vrfs:
  vrf20:
    table: 20
    interfaces: [ br0 ]
    routes:
      - to: default
        via: 10.10.10.3
    routing-policy:
      - from: 10.10.10.42
  [...]
  bridges:
    br0:
      interfaces: []

Properties for device type `nm-devices:`#

The nm-devices device type is for internal use only and should not be used in normal configuration files. It enables a fallback mode for unsupported settings, using the passthrough mapping.

Backend-specific configuration parameters#

In addition to the other fields available to configure interfaces, some backends may require to record some of their own parameters in netplan, especially if the netplan definitions are generated automatically by the consumer of that backend. Currently, this is only used with NetworkManager.

networkmanager (mapping) – since 0.99

Keeps the NetworkManager-specific configuration parameters used by the daemon to recognize connections.
- name (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Set the display name for the connection.
- uuid (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Defines the UUID (unique identifier) for this connection, as generated by NetworkManager itself.
- stable-id (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Defines the stable ID (a different form of a connection name) used by NetworkManager in case the name of the connection might otherwise change, such as when sharing connections between users.
- device (scalar) – since 0.99
  
  Defines the interface name for which this connection applies.
- passthrough (mapping) – since 0.102
  
  Can be used as a fallback mechanism to missing keyfile settings.

API specification#

libnetplan is a component of the Netplan. project that contains the logic for data parsing, validation and generation. It is build as a dynamic .so library that can be used from different binaries (like Netplan’s generate, netplan-dbus, the netplan apply/try/get/set/... CLI or via the corresponding Python bindings or external applications like the NetworkManager, using the Netplan backend).

API reference – C API and Python bindings for libnetplan

How-to guides#

Examples#

Below are a collection of example netplan configurations for common scenarios. If you see a scenario missing or have one to contribute, please file a bug against this documentation with the example.

To configure netplan, save configuration files under /etc/netplan/ with a .yaml extension (e.g. /etc/netplan/config.yaml), then run sudo netplan apply. This command parses and applies the configuration to the system. Configuration written to disk under /etc/netplan/ will persist between reboots.

Also, see /examples on GitHub.

Using DHCP and static addressing#

To let the interface named enp3s0 get an address via DHCP, create a YAML file with the following:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        enp3s0:
            dhcp4: true

To instead set a static IP address, use the addresses key, which takes a list of (IPv4 or IPv6), addresses along with the subnet prefix length (e.g. /24). DNS information can be provided as well, and the gateway can be defined via a default route:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        enp3s0:
            addresses:
                - 10.10.10.2/24
            nameservers:
                search: [mydomain, otherdomain]
                addresses: [10.10.10.1, 1.1.1.1]
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: 10.10.10.1

Connecting multiple interfaces with DHCP#

Many systems now include more than one network interface. Servers will commonly need to connect to multiple networks, and may require that traffic to the Internet goes through a specific interface despite all of them providing a valid gateway.

One can achieve the exact routing desired over DHCP by specifying a metric for the routes retrieved over DHCP, which will ensure some routes are preferred over others. In this example, ‘enred’ is preferred over ‘engreen’, as it has a lower route metric:

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        enred:
            dhcp4: yes
            dhcp4-overrides:
                route-metric: 100
        engreen:
            dhcp4: yes
            dhcp4-overrides:
                route-metric: 200

Connecting to an open wireless network#

Netplan easily supports connecting to an open wireless network (one that is not secured by a password), only requiring that the access point is defined:

network:
    version: 2
    wifis:
        wl0:
            access-points:
                opennetwork: {}
            dhcp4: yes

Connecting to a WPA Personal wireless network#

Wireless devices use the ‘wifis’ key and share the same configuration options with wired ethernet devices. The wireless access point name and password should also be specified:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    wifis:
        wlp2s0b1:
            dhcp4: no
            dhcp6: no
            addresses: [192.168.0.21/24]
            nameservers:
                addresses: [192.168.0.1, 8.8.8.8]
            access-points:
                "network_ssid_name":
                    password: "**********"
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: 192.168.0.1

Connecting to WPA Enterprise wireless networks#

It is also common to find wireless networks secured using WPA or WPA2 Enterprise, which requires additional authentication parameters.

For example, if the network is secured using WPA-EAP and TTLS:

network:
    version: 2
    wifis:
        wl0:
            access-points:
                workplace:
                    auth:
                        key-management: eap
                        method: ttls
                        anonymous-identity: "@internal.example.com"
                        identity: "joe@internal.example.com"
                        password: "v3ryS3kr1t"
            dhcp4: yes

Or, if the network is secured using WPA-EAP and TLS:

network:
    version: 2
    wifis:
        wl0:
            access-points:
                university:
                    auth:
                        key-management: eap
                        method: tls
                        anonymous-identity: "@cust.example.com"
                        identity: "cert-joe@cust.example.com"
                        ca-certificate: /etc/ssl/cust-cacrt.pem
                        client-certificate: /etc/ssl/cust-crt.pem
                        client-key: /etc/ssl/cust-key.pem
                        client-key-password: "d3cryptPr1v4t3K3y"
            dhcp4: yes

Many different modes of encryption are supported. See the Netplan reference page.

Using multiple addresses on a single interface#

The addresses key can take a list of addresses to assign to an interface:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp3s0:
      addresses:
        - 10.100.1.37/24
        - 10.100.1.38/24:
            label: "enp3s0:0"
        - 10.100.1.39/24:
            label: "enp3s0:some-label"
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 10.100.1.1

Using multiple addresses with multiple gateways#

Similar to the example above, interfaces with multiple addresses can be configured with multiple gateways, and static DNS nameservers (Google DNS for this example):

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp3s0:
        addresses:
          - 10.0.0.10/24
          - 11.0.0.11/24
        nameservers:
          addresses:
            - 8.8.8.8
            - 8.8.4.4
        routes:
          - to: default
            via: 10.0.0.1
            metric: 200
          - to: default
            via: 11.0.0.1
            metric: 300

We configure individual routes to default (or 0.0.0.0/0) using the address of the gateway for the subnet. The metric value should be adjusted so the routing happens as expected.

DHCP can be used to receive one of the IP addresses for the interface. In this case, the default route for that address will be automatically configured with a metric value of 100.

Using Network Manager as a renderer#

Netplan supports both networkd and Network Manager as backends. You can specify which network backend should be used to configure particular devices by using the renderer key. You can also delegate all configuration of the network to Network Manager itself by specifying only the renderer key:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: NetworkManager

Configuring interface bonding#

Bonding is configured by declaring a bond interface with a list of physical interfaces and a bonding mode. Below is an example of an active-backup bond that uses DHCP to obtain an address:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    bonds:
        bond0:
            dhcp4: yes
            interfaces:
                - enp3s0
                - enp4s0
            parameters:
                mode: active-backup
                primary: enp3s0

Below is an example of a system acting as a router with various bonded interfaces and different types. Note the ‘optional: true’ key declarations that allow booting to occur without waiting for those interfaces to activate fully.

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        enp1s0:
            dhcp4: no
        enp2s0:
            dhcp4: no
        enp3s0:
            dhcp4: no
            optional: true
        enp4s0:
            dhcp4: no
            optional: true
        enp5s0:
            dhcp4: no
            optional: true
        enp6s0:
            dhcp4: no
            optional: true
    bonds:
        bond-lan:
            interfaces: [enp2s0, enp3s0]
            addresses: [192.168.93.2/24]
            parameters:
                mode: 802.3ad
                mii-monitor-interval: 1
        bond-wan:
            interfaces: [enp1s0, enp4s0]
            addresses: [192.168.1.252/24]
            nameservers:
                search: [local]
                addresses: [8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4]
            parameters:
                mode: active-backup
                mii-monitor-interval: 1
                gratuitious-arp: 5
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: 192.168.1.1
        bond-conntrack:
            interfaces: [enp5s0, enp6s0]
            addresses: [192.168.254.2/24]
            parameters:
                mode: balance-rr
                mii-monitor-interval: 1

Configuring network bridges#

To create a very simple bridge consisting of a single device that uses DHCP, write:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        enp3s0:
            dhcp4: no
    bridges:
        br0:
            dhcp4: yes
            interfaces:
                - enp3s0

A more complex example, to get libvirtd to use a specific bridge with a tagged vlan, while continuing to provide an untagged interface as well would involve:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        enp0s25:
            dhcp4: true
    bridges:
        br0:
            addresses: [ 10.3.99.25/24 ]
            interfaces: [ vlan15 ]
    vlans:
        vlan15:
            accept-ra: no
            id: 15
            link: enp0s25

Then libvirtd would be configured to use this bridge by adding the following content to a new XML file under /etc/libvirtd/qemu/networks/. The name of the bridge in the <bridge> tag as well as in <name> need to match the name of the bridge device configured using netplan:

<network>
    <name>br0</name>
    <bridge name='br0'/>
    <forward mode="bridge"/>
</network>

Attaching VLANs to network interfaces#

To configure multiple VLANs with renamed interfaces:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        mainif:
            match:
                macaddress: "de:ad:be:ef:ca:fe"
            set-name: mainif
            addresses: [ "10.3.0.5/23" ]
            nameservers:
                addresses: [ "8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4" ]
                search: [ example.com ]
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: 10.3.0.1
    vlans:
        vlan15:
            id: 15
            link: mainif
            addresses: [ "10.3.99.5/24" ]
        vlan10:
            id: 10
            link: mainif
            addresses: [ "10.3.98.5/24" ]
            nameservers:
                addresses: [ "127.0.0.1" ]
                search: [ domain1.example.com, domain2.example.com ]

Reaching a directly connected gateway#

This allows setting up a default route, or any route, using the “on-link” keyword where the gateway is an IP address that is directly connected to the network even if the address does not match the subnet configured on the interface.

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        ens3:
            addresses: [ "10.10.10.1/24" ]
            routes:
             - to: default # or 0.0.0.0/0
               via: 9.9.9.9
               on-link: true

For IPv6 the config would be very similar, with the notable difference being an additional scope: link host route to the router’s address required:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        ens3:
            addresses: [ "2001:cafe:face:beef::dead:dead/64" ]
            routes:
             - to: "2001:cafe:face::1/128"
               scope: link
             - to: default # or "::/0"
               via: "2001:cafe:face::1"
               on-link: true

Configuring source routing#

Route tables can be added to particular interfaces to allow routing between two networks:

In the example below, ens3 is on the 192.168.3.0/24 network and ens5 is on the 192.168.5.0/24 network. This enables clients on either network to connect to the other and allow the response to come from the correct interface.

Furthermore, the default route is still assigned to ens5 allowing any other traffic to go through it.

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        ens3:
            addresses:
             - 192.168.3.30/24
            dhcp4: no
            routes:
             - to: 192.168.3.0/24
               via: 192.168.3.1
               table: 101
            routing-policy:
             - from: 192.168.3.0/24
               table: 101
        ens5:
            addresses:
             - 192.168.5.24/24
            dhcp4: no
            routes:
             - to: default
               via: 192.168.5.1
             - to: 192.168.5.0/24
               via: 192.168.5.1
               table: 102
            routing-policy:
             - from: 192.168.5.0/24
               table: 102

Configuring a loopback interface#

Networkd does not allow creating new loopback devices, but a user can add new addresses to the standard loopback interface, lo, in order to have it considered a valid address on the machine as well as for custom routing:

network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
    ethernets:
        lo:
            addresses: [ "127.0.0.1/8", "::1/128", "7.7.7.7/32" ]

Integration with a Windows DHCP Server#

For networks where DHCP is provided by a Windows Server using the dhcp-identifier key allows for interoperability:

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        enp3s0:
            dhcp4: yes
            dhcp-identifier: mac

Connecting an IP tunnel#

Tunnels allow an administrator to extend networks across the Internet by configuring two endpoints that will connect a special tunnel interface and do the routing required. Netplan supports SIT, GRE, IP-in-IP (ipip, ipip6, ip6ip6), IP6GRE, VTI and VTI6 tunnels.

A common use of tunnels is to enable IPv6 connectivity on networks that only support IPv4. The example below show how such a tunnel might be configured.

Here, 1.1.1.1 is the client’s own IP address; 2.2.2.2 is the remote server’s IPv4 address, “2001:dead:beef::2/64” is the client’s IPv6 address as defined by the tunnel, and “2001:dead:beef::1” is the remote server’s IPv6 address.

Finally, “2001:cafe:face::1/64” is an address for the client within the routed IPv6 prefix:

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eth0:
            addresses:
                - 1.1.1.1/24
                - "2001:cafe:face::1/64"
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: 1.1.1.254
    tunnels:
        he-ipv6:
            mode: sit
            remote: 2.2.2.2
            local: 1.1.1.1
            addresses:
                - "2001:dead:beef::2/64"
            routes:
                - to: default
                  via: "2001:dead:beef::1"

Configuring SR-IOV Virtual Functions#

For SR-IOV network cards, it is possible to dynamically allocate Virtual Function interfaces for every configured Physical Function. In netplan, a VF is defined by having a link: property pointing to the parent PF.

network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eno1:
            mtu: 9000
        enp1s16f1:
            link: eno1
            addresses : [ "10.15.98.25/24" ]
        vf1:
            match:
                name: enp1s16f[2-3]
            link: eno1
            addresses : [ "10.15.99.25/24" ]

Complex example#

This is a complex example which shows most available features

    network:
      version: 2
      # if specified, can only realistically have that value, as networkd cannot
      # render wifi/3G.
      renderer: NetworkManager
      vrfs:
        mgmt-vrf:
          table: 10
          interfaces:
            - id1
          routes:
            - to: default
              via: 192.168.24.254
              metric: 100
      ethernets:
        lo:
          addresses:
            - 172.16.20.20/32
          link-local: []
        # opaque ID for physical interfaces, only referred to by other stanzas
        id0:
          match:
            macaddress: 00:11:22:33:44:55
          wakeonlan: true
          dhcp4: true
          addresses:
            - 192.168.14.2/24
            - 192.168.14.3/24
            - "2001:1::1/64"
          nameservers:
            search: [foo.local, bar.local]
            addresses: [8.8.8.8]
          routes:
            - to: default
              via: 192.168.14.1
            - to: default
              via: "2001:1::2"
            - to: 0.0.0.0/0
              via: 11.0.0.1
              table: 70
              on-link: true
              metric: 3
          routing-policy:
            - to: 10.0.0.0/8
              from: 192.168.14.2/24
              table: 70
              priority: 100
            - to: 20.0.0.0/8
              from: 192.168.14.3/24
              table: 70
              priority: 50
          # only networkd can render on-link routes and routing policies
          renderer: networkd
        id1:
          match:
            macaddress: 00:11:22:33:44:56
          wakeonlan: true
          dhcp4: true
          addresses:
            - 192.168.24.2/24
        lom:
          match:
            driver: ixgbe
          # you are responsible for setting tight enough match rules
          # that only match one device if you use set-name
          set-name: lom1
          dhcp6: true
        switchports:
          # all cards on second PCI bus unconfigured by
          # themselves, will be added to br0 below
          match:
            name: enp2*
          mtu: 1280
      wifis:
        all-wlans:
          # useful on a system where you know there is
          # only ever going to be one device
          match: {}
          access-points:
            "Joe's home":
              # mode defaults to "infrastructure" (client)
              password: "s3kr1t"
        # this creates an AP on wlp1s0 using hostapd
        # no match rules, thus the ID is the interface name
        wlp1s0:
          access-points:
            "guest":
               mode: ap
               # no WPA config implies default of open
      bridges:
        # the key name is the name for virtual (created) interfaces
        # no match: and set-name: allowed
        br0:
          # IDs of the components; switchports expands into multiple interfaces
          interfaces: [wlp1s0, switchports]
          dhcp4: true
        br20:
          interfaces: [vxlan20]
      tunnels:
        vxlan20:
          mode: vxlan
          link: lo
          id: 20
          mtu: 8950
          accept-ra: no
          neigh-suppress: true
          link-local: []
          mac-learning: false
          port: 4789
          local: 172.16.20.20

How to use DBus config API#

Copy the current state from /{etc,run,lib}/netplan/*.yaml by creating a new config object

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan io.netplan.Netplan Config
o "/io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0"

Read the merged YAML configuration

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Get
s "network:\n  ethernets:\n    eth0:\n      dhcp4: true\n  renderer: networkd\n  version: 2\n"

Write a new config snippet into 70-snapd.yaml

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Set ss "ethernets.eth0={dhcp4: false, dhcp6: true}" "70-snapd"
b true

Check the newly written configuration

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Get
s "network:\n  ethernets:\n    eth0:\n      dhcp4: false\n      dhcp6: true\n  renderer: networkd\n  version: 2\n"

Try to apply the current config object’s state

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Try u 20
b true

Accept the Try() state within the 20 seconds timeout, if not it will be auto-rejected

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Apply
b true

[SIGNAL] io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Changed() is triggered
[OBJECT] io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/ULJIU0 is removed from the bus

Create a new config object and get the merged YAML config

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan io.netplan.Netplan Config
o "/io/netplan/Netplan/config/KC0IU0
$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/KC0IU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Get
s "network:\n  ethernets:\n    eth0:\n      dhcp4: false\n      dhcp6: true\n  renderer: networkd\n  version: 2\n"

Reject that config object again

$ busctl call io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/KC0IU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Cancel
b true

[SIGNAL] io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/KC0IU0 io.netplan.Netplan.Config Changed() is triggered
[OBJECT] io.netplan.Netplan /io/netplan/Netplan/config/KC0IU0 is removed from the bus

Tutorials#

Here you can find some external blog posts, describing the usage of Netplan on different systems.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS#

https://vitux.com/how-to-configure-networking-with-netplan-on-ubuntu/

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS#

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS#

Explanation#

Design#

Netplan Design – Network configuration abstraction via systemd-generator

FAQs#

Netplan FAQs – Find answers to common questions

Project and community#

Reporting bugs: We want to know about the problems so we can fix them.
Code changes: The code is open and we are open to accepting changes to it. So, don’t worry about maintaining a new fork, and instead, let’s work together.

If you want to get involved#

Visit the website at netplan.io
Join the community forum
Report a bug on Launchpad
Contribute on GitHub

Netplan Documentation#

Reference#

YAML configuration#

Introduction#

General structure#

Device configuration IDs#

Common properties for physical device types#

Common properties for all device types#

DHCP Overrides#

Routing#

Default routes#

Authentication#

Properties for device type ethernets:#

Properties for device type modems:#

Properties for device type wifis:#

Properties for device type bridges:#

Properties for device type bonds:#

Properties for device type tunnels:#

Properties for device type vlans:#

Properties for device type vrfs:#

Properties for device type nm-devices:#

Backend-specific configuration parameters#

API specification#

How-to guides#

Examples#

Using DHCP and static addressing#

Connecting multiple interfaces with DHCP#

Connecting to an open wireless network#

Connecting to a WPA Personal wireless network#

Connecting to WPA Enterprise wireless networks#

Using multiple addresses on a single interface#

Using multiple addresses with multiple gateways#

Using Network Manager as a renderer#

Configuring interface bonding#

Configuring network bridges#

Attaching VLANs to network interfaces#

Reaching a directly connected gateway#

Configuring source routing#

Configuring a loopback interface#

Integration with a Windows DHCP Server#

Connecting an IP tunnel#

Configuring SR-IOV Virtual Functions#

Complex example#

How to use DBus config API#

Tutorials#

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS#

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS#

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS#

Explanation#

Design#

FAQs#

Project and community#

If you want to get involved#

Properties for device type `ethernets:`#

Properties for device type `modems:`#

Properties for device type `wifis:`#

Properties for device type `bridges:`#

Properties for device type `bonds:`#

Properties for device type `tunnels:`#

Properties for device type `vlans:`#

Properties for device type `vrfs:`#

Properties for device type `nm-devices:`#