SUSE & openSUSE

In openSUSE 11.0, the network setup is by default controller by “NetworkManager” and this is different from the traditional netcontrol. With NetworkManager, users control the Network Interfaces. To confirm this, in GNOME from Computer – Yast – Network Devices – Network Settings, check for option “User Controlled with Network Manager” under Network Setup Method. Or, check for the line ‘NETWORKMANAGER=”yes”‘ in /etc/sysconfig/network/config file.

This may not be a viable option to use on SUSE enterprise Desktop as in a enterprise environment you wouldn’t want the user to modify or control network settings.

To setup persistent Statis Routes in openSUSE 11.0 when network settings are controlled by NetworkManager, then try the following:

1. Create a ifroute-<*> file for each interface

For every network interface on the system which needs individual persisten static routing table create a “ifroute-<*>” file in the /etc/sysconfig/network/ directory.

where <*> is the name of the interface

For instance, on my system the interface name is eth0 and hence I create a file called

/etc/sysconfig/network/ifroute-eth0

This file should have the static route entries for the hosts or networks in any of the following format:

DESTINATION           GATEWAY NETMASK   INTERFACE [ TYPE ] [ OPTIONS ]
Example
192.168.1.1 192.168.233.2 255.255.255.255 eth0

DESTINATION           GATEWAY PREFIXLEN INTERFACE [ TYPE ] [ OPTIONS ]
Example
10.1.1.0  192.168.233.2 24

DESTINATION/PREFIXLEN GATEWAY -         INTERFACE [ TYPE ] [ OPTIONS ]
10.1.1.0/24 192.168.233.2 -

In the above each of the field is seperated by a TAB. [TYPE][OPTIONS] are optional.

If you not in the above, Example 2 & 3 mean exactly the same. Only represented in different formats.

So, I created a file as follows on my system

SAIBABA:~ # cat /etc/sysconfig/network/ifroute-eth0
10.1.1.1 192.168.233.2 255.255.255.255 eth0
10.10.10.0 192.168.233.2 24 eth0
172.20.1.0/24 192.168.233.2 – eth0

2. NetworkManager POST_UP Script

With NetworkManager, the POST_UP scripts are fetched from /etc/sysconfig/network/if-up.d/ directory and is set to ‘yes’ (enabled) by default. In simple terms, any script that you want to run once the Network interface up and active, simply drop them into this directory or create a symbolic link to the script file in this directory.

In SUSE and openSUSE, there are the following scripts in /etc/sysconfig/network/scripts/ directory which assist in bring up/down Interface routes and to check the status

ifup-route

To bring up static routes. This reads the file /etc/sysconfig/network/ifroute-* file.

ifdown-route

To clear the static routes loaded

ifstatus-route

To check the current status of the routes

SAIBABA:~ # /etc/sysconfig/network/scripts/ifstatus-route eth0
Configured routes for interface eth0:
169.254.0.0 – 255.255.0.0 eth0
10.1.1.1 192.168.233.2 255.255.255.255 eth0
10.10.10.0 192.168.233.2 24 eth0
172.20.1.0/24 192.168.233.2 – eth0
Active routes for interface eth0:
10.1.1.1 via 192.168.233.2
172.20.1.0/24 via 192.168.233.2
192.168.233.0/24  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.233.128
10.10.10.0/24 via 192.168.233.2
169.254.0.0/16  scope link
default via 192.168.233.2  proto static
3 of 4 configured routes for interface eth0 up

3. Create a Symbolic File for ifup-route

In the POST_UP directory for NetworkManager i.e, /etc/sysconfig/network/if-up.d/ create a Symbolic link as follows to the ifup-route script as follows:

SAIBABA:~ # ln -s /etc/sysconfig/network/scripts/ifup-route /etc/sysconfig/network/if-up.d/ifup-route

Thats it. You can either restart your system or simply restart your Network service for the change to take effect.

SAIBABA:~ # /etc/init.d/network restart
Shutting down the NetworkManager                                     done
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0      device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 [PCnet32 LANCE] (rev 10)                                                                   done
Shutting down service network  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . done.
Starting the NetworkManager                                          done

Thats it! We are done.