As we all know, “ifconfig” command is used to configure a network interfaces in GNU/Linux systems. It displays the details of a network interface card like IP address, MAC Address, and the status of a network interface card etc. But, this command is obsolete, and is not found in the minimal versions of RHEL 7 and its clones like CentOS 7, Oracle Linux 7, and Scientific Linux 7.
How do I find IP and other details of a network interface In CentOS Minimal server?
CentOS 7 minimal systems, use the commands “ip addr” and “ip link” to find the details of a network interface card. To know the statistics use “ip -s link”.
To view the details of the network interface cards, enter the following commands:
ip addr
Sample output:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo inet6 ::1/128 scope host valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 2: venet0: <BROADCAST,POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN link/void inet 127.0.0.1/32 scope host venet0 inet 192.168.1.101/32 brd 192.168.1.101 scope global venet0:0
To view the statistics of your network interfaces, enter the command:
ip link
Sample output:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: venet0: <BROADCAST,POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/void
OR
ip -s link
Sample output:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 RX: bytes packets errors dropped overrun mcast 0 0 0 0 0 0 TX: bytes packets errors dropped carrier collsns 0 0 0 0 0 0 2: venet0: <BROADCAST,POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT link/void RX: bytes packets errors dropped overrun mcast 8515667 6667 0 0 0 0 TX: bytes packets errors dropped carrier collsns 300403 4249 0 0 0 0
How do I enable and use “ifconfig” Command in CentOS 7 minimal servers?
If you don’t know where to find the ifconfig command, follow the simple steps provided below. First let us find out which packages will provide ifconfig command. To do that , enter the following command:
yum provides ifconfig
Sample Output:
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * base: centos.aol.in * extras: centos.aol.in * updates: centos.aol.in net-tools-2.0-0.17.20131004git.el7.x86_64 : Basic networking tools Repo : @base Matched from: Filename : /usr/sbin/ifconfig
Or you can use the following command too.
yum whatprovides ifconfig
Here, “provides” or “whatprovides” switches are used to find out which package provides some feature or file.
As you see in the above output, the net-tools package provides the ifconfig command. So, let us install net-tools package to use ifconfig command.
yum install net-tools
Now, you’ll be able to use the command ifconfig as usual.
ifconfig -a
Sample output:
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 16436 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host> loop txqueuelen 0 (Local Loopback) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 venet0: flags=211<UP,BROADCAST,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,NOARP> mtu 1500 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.255 broadcast 0.0.0.0 destination 127.0.0.1 unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 txqueuelen 0 (UNSPEC) RX packets 7073 bytes 8549159 (8.1 MiB) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 4611 bytes 359201 (350.7 KiB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 venet0:0: flags=211<UP,BROADCAST,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,NOARP> mtu 1500 inet 192.168.1.101 netmask 255.255.255.255 broadcast 192.168.1.101 destination 192.168.1.101 unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 txqueuelen 0 (UNSPEC)
Enjoy!