CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 : How to modify Network Interface names

Written by BiRU Saturday, 17 February 2024 12:01

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

On CentOS / RHEL 7, a new naming scheme is introduced.
For instance:

# ip addr show
.....
eno1: [BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP] mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000
link/ether 6c:0b:84:6c:48:1c brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.10.10.11/24 brd 10.10.10.255 scope global eno1
inet6 2606:b400:c00:48:6e0b:84ff:fe6c:481c/128 scope global dynamic
valid_lft 2326384sec preferred_lft 339184sec
inet6 fe80::6e0b:84ff:fe6c:481c/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

This post describes how to revert to the legacy naming scheme with Network Interface names as eth0, eth1, etc.

1. Edit kernel boot parameter.

Edit file /etc/default/grub and add net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 to line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX, for instance:

 

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=" crashkernel=auto net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 rhgb quiet"

Regenerate a GRUB configuration file and overwrite existing one:

# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

2. Correct ifcfg file configuration

Edit NAME and DEVICE parameters in ifcfg file to new Network Interface name.

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eno1
......
NAME=eth0
DEVICE=eth0
......

Edit ifcfg file name:

# mv /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eno1 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

3. Disable NetworkManager

Make sure you disable the NetworkManager as it may revert back the changes on reboot or network restarts.

# systemctl disable NetworkManager
rm '/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/NetworkManager.service'
rm '/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.service'
rm '/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service'

4. Reboot system

The last step is to reboot the system for the changes we made to take effect.

# shutdown -r now