How to add an alternative name for the interface?

Question

On Ubuntu 16.04 server I'd like to have another name for eth0, for example.

Do you want another name or do you want to [add another IP to it](https://askubuntu.com/questions/585468/how-do-i-add-an-additional-ip-address-to-an-interface-in-ubuntu-14)? — muru, Sep 11 '17 at 06:17
@muru, as an the actual solution I'll probably leave some comments in my iptables rules to then grep for the comment to get the right interface name. — Velkan, Sep 11 '17 at 06:57
Try [this](http://ask.xmodulo.com/change-network-interface-name-centos7.html) for an udev name rule. `/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules` — jc__, Sep 11 '17 at 15:05
@vonbrand I think I wanted to make some old config files and documentation be compatible with the new system that adds better names. I've ended up writing scripts and daemons to convert the configs. — Velkan, Feb 27 '20 at 19:49

Etienne Dechamps · Answer 1 · 2020-02-22T13:57:53.163

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You might want to take a look at the new iproute2 network interface alternative name feature (ip link altname). Note that the command syntax seems to have changed since that article. For example:

ip link property add dev eth0 altname someothername

Note that this is very new, you will need a recent version of iproute2 for it to work (v5.4.0 which came out on 2019-11-25, if I'm reading the git log right).

edited Feb 22 '20 at 13:57

answered Feb 22 '20 at 13:52

Etienne Dechamps

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Does this survive reboots? – Haris Aug 31 '20 at 17:20
1

@Haris Just like every other `ip` command, the answer is no. You will have to persist the config using your mechanism of choice. – Etienne Dechamps Aug 31 '20 at 21:36
@EtienneDechamps do you have any suggestions on what mechanisms to use to get the altname to persist across reboots? i am failing to figure this out for any tool which seems like it might be capable of doing so (network-scripts, udev, systemd-networkd, NetworkManager, etc.) – jayhendren Mar 17 '23 at 22:50

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 11 '17 at 07:57

From man ip-link:

   alias NAME
          give the device a symbolic name for easy reference.

Example giving an alias to the lo interface:

$ sudo ip link set lo alias mycustomaliasforlo
$ ip link show lo
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    alias mycustomaliasforlo

However, note that this only creates a symbolic reference, meaning you cannot use this alias as a real device name. For example, the following will fail:

$ ip link show mycustomaliasforlo
Device "mycustomaliasforlo" does not exist.

If you can't address it, what's the point of an alias? – Shadur Sep 02 '20 at 07:19 — Shadur, Sep 02 '20 at 07:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 11 '17 at 19:50

Changing the nic name on Ubuntu 16 by reverting to udev rules.

Software: Fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04.3 server with sshd in virtual machine. Not updated

How I got here:

Could not get any of the systemd instructions to work. I looks like systemd is being used, but no joy

network-manager is not installed, so no interference from it.

Step 1:

Stop systemd's Predictable Network Interface Names thingy by adding net.ifnames=0 to kernel command line.

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0"

update grub with new info:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

note:

I have seen where the value biosdevname=0 was added to the kernel command line in addition to net.ifnames=0. This setup did not require it.

Step 2:

Assign a new name using udev rules by creating a new rule file.

sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/10-myCustom-net.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="08:00:27:f3:79:59", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="test0"

adjust the MAC address and name for your system.

note:

Removed ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0" and ATTR{type}=="1" from my Ubuntu 14 template.

Some say to remove KERNEL=="eth*" or the entire line is ignored. This was not the case in this setup.

If you 'lose' the MAC address like I did because I rebooted before this step, does not show with ifconfig, go find it in /sys/class/net/assignedName/address. BTW: this system renamed it eth0, cat /sys/class/net/eth0/address

/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules was the file automatically created in <= Ubuntu 14.

Step 3:

Assign the new interface name an address

sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

auto test0
iface test0 inet static
    address 192.168.2.202
    netmask 255.255.255.0

Step 4:

reboot (its just easier for most of us)

As always verify all file locations for your system before executing any commands.

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 12:32

0

You can rename the NIC "label" this way on /etc/network/interfaces

  rename ens21=niclan
  auto niclan
  iface niclan inet static
      address 192.168.1.200
      netmask 255.255.255.0

edited Oct 07 '21 at 12:32

AdminBee

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answered Oct 07 '21 at 12:24

Gonzalo Perez Brun

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score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 11 '17 at 16:44

The net-tools methode:

You can add a network alias to your eth0 interface:

ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.1.200 up

Verify it ifconfig:

eth0:0: flags=-28669<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,DYNAMIC>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.200  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        ether 34:07:cc:6f:82:5f  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)

You can configure the eth0:0 on your /etc/network/interfaces:

auto eth0:0
allow-hotplug eth0:0
iface eth0:0 inet static
    address 192.168.1.200
    netmask 255.255.255.0

Do not add a "gateway" or a "dns-nameservers"

The iproute2 method on debian wiki

Isn't that just the old way to add several IP addresses to a single interface? With `ip`, those interfaces won't show up, instead it will just list all the addresses. — dirkt, Sep 11 '17 at 17:50

How to add an alternative name for the interface?

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