Static IP & custom DNS servers

stepsSet a static IP address and custom DNS nameservers for your MiniBolt.

Difficulty: Easy

The router reserves the IP address of the device for a time after going out, but if the device goes out some time, the next time that the device starts, the router could assign a different IP and you could lose access to your node. To avoid this, you need to set a static IP to your node.

Be careful by setting this! If you change the router, could be the new router doesn't work in the same IP address range as the old router, the device won't be registered on the local network and will be completely out of the connection.

💡 To avoid this, you will need to enable the "Automatic (DHCP)" mode before changing the router, following the Set the DCHP (automatic) configuration to ensure that the DHCP server auto assigns an IP to the node in the range you are working on, and if you want, after router change, reconfigure the static IP address again following the Option 2 of this guide.

If you don't do this, you will have to attach the monitor screen or television and keyboard to fix this.

In addition, you can customize your DNS servers to improve your privacy, normally your ISP, gives you the router with its own DNS servers configured by default, and this does that you exposes all of your navigation trackings to your ISP, affecting seriously your privacy.

Option 1: At the beginning, during the Ubuntu Server installation GUI

When you arrive at step 5 of the Ubuntu Server installation, you can want to choose set a static IP address and customize the DNS name server/s.

Wait for the router to automatically assign the IP address to your MiniBolt node to find out what IP range the node is in, you will be able to assign the same or a different IP in the next step.

Subnet: your router subnet, e.g 192.168.1.0/24
Address: your assigned local IP address, eg. 192.168.1.29
Gateway: you router IP, eg. 192.168.1.1
Name servers: DNS servers choosen, eg. same of gateway (192.168.1.1,192.168.1.1) (your ISP DNS) or Cloudflare DNS server (1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1) <- (recommended)
Search domains: <left blank>

This is only an example if your local network IP range is 192.168.1.0-255, because for this case, the router assigned to the device the IP address 192.168.1.29, but could be 192.168.0.29 (192.168.0.0-255), then you will need to set this instead:

Subnet: 192.168.0.0/24

Gateway: 192.168.0.1

In this step, you can set DNS name servers too, for this example, we have configured Cloudflare DNS name servers (1.1.1.1/1.0.0.1) but you could set others

Option 2: After Ubuntu Server installation (by command line)

After having done the 1.3 Remote access section, you could want to set a static IP address to your MiniBolt by the command line.

Preparations

Stay login with user admin, and check your current data network interface by doing

ip address

Check your configuration, the next output is only an example of a concrete case, but in your case, it could be different:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: : <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 40:a8:f0:ac:6a:37 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s25
    inet 192.168.1.147/24 metric 100 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic eno1
       valid_lft 76855sec preferred_lft 76855sec
    inet6 fe80::42a8:f0ff:feac:6a37/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Definitions in the case of before:

<interface> = e.g eno1

<ipaddress> = e.g 192.168.1.147

<gateway> = 192.168.1.1 (this case) -> case 192.168.0.147, choose 192.168.0.1

Take note of your case data, you will need it later

Check the current DNS server set, typing the next command

resolvectl status

Example of expected output (more common):

Global
       Protocols: -LLMNR -mDNS -DNSOverTLS DNSSEC=no/unsupported
resolv.conf mode: stub

Link 2 (eno1)
    Current Scopes: DNS
         Protocols: +DefaultRoute +LLMNR -mDNS -DNSOverTLS DNSSEC=no/unsupported
Current DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
       DNS Servers: 192.168.1.1
        DNS Domain: home

In the case of before:

<nameserver1> = 192.168.1.1 ( = <gateway>, the DNS servers of your ISP)

<nameserver2> = (secondary DNS server, not setted in this case)

Configuration

Remember, always back up your current network configuration before making changes. This ensures you can restore the previous configuration if something goes wrong

We will use Netplan with the systemd-networkd renderer backend

Edit the content of the next file

sudo nano /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

Replace the content to match this template

# This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
network:
  ethernets:
    <interface>:
      addresses:
      - <ipaddress>/24
      nameservers:
        addresses:
        - <nameserver1>
        - <nameserver2>
        search: []
      routes:
      - to: default
        via: <gateway>
  version: 2

Replace <interface>, <ipaddress>, <nameserver1>, <nameserver2> <- (name server optional but recommended), and <gateway> to your own data. You can choose the DNS server (<nameserver1> + <nameserver2>) whatever you want, including the default one set in the DNS server of your router (normally DNS servers of your ISP), in this last case, you should type the <gateway> address in <nameserver1> and the same in <nameserver2>.

For this example, we have configured Cloudflare DNS name servers (1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1) <-- (recommended), but you could set others

Example ⬇️

# This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
network:
  ethernets:
    eno1:
      addresses:
      - 192.168.1.87/24
      nameservers:
        addresses:
        - 1.1.1.1
        - 1.0.0.1
        search: []
      routes:
      - to: default
        via: 192.168.1.1
  version: 2

Apply the configuration temporarily

sudo netplan try

This will apply the configuration and start a 120-second timer

If the network works as expected, you need to confirm the changes. If the network is not working or you don't confirm, the changes will be rolled back after 120 seconds. To confirm, type

sudo netplan apply

Now you have set your static IP address and custom DNS servers

If you chose a different IP address than the router assigned you at first and has currently, this step could break the current SSH connection, reconnect using the new and chosen IP address

Check changes

To check the successful IP address change, type the next command

ip address

The output of this command may not change, depending on whether you chose the same IP that the router originally assigned you at the beginning, or whether you chose to change to another

To check the successful DNS server change, type the next command

resolvectl status

Example of expected output ⬇️

Global
       Protocols: -LLMNR -mDNS -DNSOverTLS DNSSEC=no/unsupported
resolv.conf mode: stub

Link 2 (eno1)
    Current Scopes: DNS
         Protocols: +DefaultRoute +LLMNR -mDNS -DNSOverTLS DNSSEC=no/unsupported
Current DNS Server: 1.1.1.1
       DNS Servers: 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1
[...]

Or if you prefer:

sudo networkctl status

Example of expected output ⬇️

●        State: routable
  Online state: online
       Address: 192.168.1.71 on eno1
                10.0.1.1 on wg0
                fe80::1e69:7aff:feac:8129 on eno1
       Gateway: 192.168.1.1 on eno1
           DNS: 1.1.1.1
                1.0.0.1
           NTP: 10.28.64.1

Set the Automatic (DHCP) mode configuration (by command line)

If you go to change the router you could want to enable or check if you have enabled the automatic (DHCP) mode configuration to avoid problems

We will use Netplan with the systemd-networkd renderer backend

Edit the content of the next file

sudo nano /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

Replace the content to match this template, replacing <interface> with your data obtained in the Preparations section before

# This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
network:
  ethernets:
    <interface>:
      dhcp4: true
  version: 2

Apply the configuration temporarily

sudo netplan try

This will apply the configuration and start a 120-second timer

If the network works as expected, you need to confirm the changes. If the network is not working or you don't confirm, the changes will be rolled back after 120 seconds. To confirm, type

sudo netplan apply

Check changes are applied correctly following the same steps as before

You have gone back to the automatic (DHCP) mode configuration successfully

PreviousAliases NextNode + NPM

Last updated 1 month ago