Configure CentOS with Multiple IP Addresses

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Introduction

A basic network configuration at Vultr consists of a single IPv4 address, configured by DHCP. If you have advanced networking requirements, Vultr supports multiple public IPs and up to five private networks. You need to manually configure these advanced scenarios. Refer to the networking configuration page in the customer portal for your exact configuration. This example demonstrates three public IPv4 addresses, two private IPv4 networks, and two public IPv6 addresses.

Note: Your network adapter names may not match the examples. See our article How to Find the Network Adapter Names for a Vultr Cloud Server.

IPv4 Info

IPv6 Info

Example for CentOS 8

Public Network

1. Define three public IPv4 addresses and two public IPv6 addresses on adapter ens3.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens3 with:

   TYPE="Ethernet"
   DEVICE="ens3"
   ONBOOT="yes"
   BOOTPROTO="none"
   IPADDR=192.0.2.101
   PREFIX=23
   GATEWAY=192.0.2.1
   DNS1=192.0.2.200
   IPADDR1=192.0.2.102
   PREFIX1=32
   IPADDR2=192.0.2.103
   PREFIX2=32
   IPV6INIT="yes"
   IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
   IPV6ADDR_SECONDARIES="2001:db8:1000::100 2001:db8:1000::200" 
   

2. Restart the connection or reboot.

   # nmcli con load /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens3
   # nmcli con up 'System ens3'
   

Private Network

1. Define the first private network on adapter ens7.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens7 with:

   TYPE="Ethernet"
   DEVICE="ens7"
   ONBOOT="yes"
   BOOTPROTO="none"
   IPADDR=10.1.1.100
   PREFIX=20
   MTU=1450
   

2. Restart the connection or reboot.

   # nmcli con load /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens7
   # nmcli con up 'System ens7'
   

3. Define the second private network on adapter ens8.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens8 with:

   TYPE="Ethernet"
   DEVICE="ens8"
   ONBOOT="yes"
   BOOTPROTO="none"
   IPADDR=10.1.1.200
   PREFIX=20
   MTU=1450
   

4. Restart the connection or reboot.

   # nmcli con load /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens8
   # nmcli con up 'System ens8'
   

Example for CentOS 6 and 7

Public Network

Configure the public network with three public IPv4 addresses and two public IPv6 addresses.

1. Define the first public IPv4 and both public IPv6 addresses on adapter eth0.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 with:

   DEVICE=eth0
   ONBOOT=yes
   BOOTPROTO=static
   IPADDR=192.0.2.101
   NETMASK=255.255.254.0
   GATEWAY=192.0.2.1
   DNS1=192.0.2.200
   
   IPV6INIT=yes
   IPV6ADDR="2001:db8:1000::100/64"
   IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
   IPV6ADDR_SECONDARIES="2001:db8:1000::200/64" 
   DNS2=2001:db8:1000::1
   

2. Set the default route for eth0.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0 with:

   169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0
   

3. Define the second public IPv4 on adapter eth0:1.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:1 with:

   DEVICE=eth0:1
   BOOTPROTO=static
   IPADDR=192.0.2.102
   NETMASK=255.255.255.255
   ONBOOT=yes
   

4. Define the third public IPv4 on adapter eth0:2.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:2 with:

   DEVICE=eth0:2
   BOOTPROTO=static
   IPADDR=192.0.2.103
   NETMASK=255.255.255.255
   ONBOOT=yes
   

Private Network

1. Define the first private network on adapter eth1.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 with:

   DEVICE=eth1
   ONBOOT=yes
   BOOTPROTO=static
   IPADDR=10.1.1.100
   NETMASK=255.255.240.0
   MTU=1450
   

2. Define the second private network on adapter eth2.
   Populate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth2 with:

   DEVICE=eth2
   ONBOOT=yes
   BOOTPROTO=static
   IPADDR=10.1.1.200
   NETMASK=255.255.240.0
   MTU=1450
   

Activate Network Changes

Restart networking or reboot to activate the network changes.

# service network restart

Note: If you have IP forwarding enabled (using your server as a VPN or similar), you will also need to add the following lines to /etc/sysctl.conf file. The default settings for these variables (which is 1), prevents IPv6 from working properly when IP forwarding is enabled. You can check if IP forwarding is enabled by running sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward.

net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_ra=2
net.ipv6.conf.eth0.accept_ra=2

Nameservers

Verify that /etc/resolv.conf has your preferred nameservers for IPv4, and optionally IPv6.

domain       example.com
nameserver   2001:db8:1000::1
nameserver   192.0.2.200

More Resources

• How to Configure Multiple Private Networks at Vultr
• How to Configure IPv6 on your VPS