Provided by: nplan_0.32~16.04.7_amd64 
NAME
netplan - YAML network configuration abstraction for various backends
Introduction
Distribution installers, cloud instantiation, image builds for particular devices, or any other way to
deploy an operating system put its desired network configuration into YAML configuration file(s). During
early boot, the netplan "network renderer" runs which reads /{lib,etc,run}/netplan/*.yaml and writes con‐
figuration to /run to hand off control of devices to the specified networking daemon.
• Configured devices get handled by systemd-networkd by default, unless explicitly marked as managed by a
specific renderer (NetworkManager)
• Devices not covered by the network config do not get touched at all.
• Usable in initramfs (few dependencies and fast)
• No persistent generated config, only original YAML config
• Parser supports multiple config files to allow applications like libvirt or lxd to package up expected
network config (virbr0, lxdbr0), or to change the global default policy to use NetworkManager for
everything.
• Retains the flexibility to change backends/policy later or adjust to removing NetworkManager, as gener‐
ated configuration is ephemeral.
General structure
netplan's configuration files use the YAML (http://yaml.org/spec/1.1/current.html) format. All
/{lib,etc,run}/netplan/*.yaml are considered. Lexicographically later files (regardless of in which di‐
rectory they are) amend (new mapping keys) or override (same mapping keys) previous ones. A file in
/run/netplan completely shadows a file with same name in /etc/netplan, and a file in either of those di‐
rectories shadows a file with the same name in /lib/netplan.
The top-level node in a netplan configuration file is a network: mapping that contains version: 2 (the
YAML currently being used by curtin, MaaS, etc. is version 1), and then device definitions grouped by
their type, such as ethernets:, wifis:, or bridges:. These are the types that our renderer can under‐
stand and are supported by our backends.
Each type block contains device definitions as a map where the keys (called "configuration IDs") are de‐
fined as below.
Device configuration IDs
The key names below the per-device-type definition maps (like ethernets:) are called "ID"s. They must be
unique throughout the entire set of configuration files. Their primary purpose is to serve as anchor
names for composite devices, for example to enumerate the members of a bridge that is currently being de‐
fined.
There are two physically/structurally different classes of device definitions, and the ID field has a
different interpretation for each:
Physical devices
(Examples: ethernet, wifi) These can dynamically come and go between reboots and even during run‐
time (hotplugging). In the generic case, they can be selected by match: rules on desired proper‐
ties, such as name/name pattern, MAC address, driver, or device paths. In general these will
match any number of devices (unless they refer to properties which are unique such as the full
path or MAC address), so without further knowledge about the hardware these will always be consid‐
ered as a group.
It is valid to specify no match rules at all, in which case the ID field is simply the interface
name to be matched. This is mostly useful if you want to keep simple cases simple, and it's how
network device configuration has been done for a long time.
If there are match: rules, then the ID field is a purely opaque name which is only being used for
references from definitions of compound devices in the config.
Virtual devices
(Examples: veth, bridge, bond) These are fully under the control of the config file(s) and the
network stack. I. e. these devices are being created instead of matched. Thus match: and
set-name: are not applicable for these, and the ID field is the name of the created virtual de‐
vice.
Common properties for physical device types
match (mapping)
This selects a subset of available physical devices by various hardware properties. The following
configuration will then apply to all matching devices, as soon as they appear. All specified
properties must match.
name (scalar)
Current interface name. Globs are supported, and the primary use case for matching on
names, as selecting one fixed name can be more easily achieved with having no match: at all
and just using the ID (see above). Note that currently only networkd supports globbing,
NetworkManager does not.
macaddress (scalar)
Device's MAC address in the form "XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX". Globs are not allowed.
driver (scalar)
Kernel driver name, corresponding to the DRIVER udev property. Globs are supported.
Matching on driver is only supported with networkd.
Examples:
• all cards on second PCI bus:
match:
name: enp2*
• fixed MAC address:
match:
macaddress: 11:22:33:AA:BB:FF
• first card of driver ixgbe:
match:
driver: ixgbe
name: en*s0
set-name (scalar)
When matching on unique properties such as path or MAC, or with additional assumptions such as
"there will only ever be one wifi device", match rules can be written so that they only match one
device. Then this property can be used to give that device a more specific/desirable/nicer name
than the default from udev's ifnames. Any additional device that satisfies the match rules will
then fail to get renamed and keep the original kernel name (and dmesg will show an error).
wakeonlan (bool)
Enable wake on LAN. Off by default.
Common properties for all device types
renderer (scalar)
Use the given networking backend for this definition. Currently supported are networkd and Net‐
workManager. This property can be specified globally in networks:, for a device type (in e. g.
ethernets:) or for a particular device definition. Default is networkd.
dhcp4 (bool)
Enable DHCP for IPv4. Off by default.
dhcp6 (bool)
Enable DHCP for IPv6. Off by default.
dhcp-identifier (scalar)
When set to 'mac'; pass that setting over to systemd-networkd to use the device's MAC address as a
unique identifier rather than a RFC4361-compliant Client ID. This has no effect when NetworkMan‐
ager is used as a renderer.
critical (bool)
(networkd backend only) Designate the connection as "critical to the system", meaning that special
care will be taken by systemd-networkd to not release the IP from DHCP when it the daemon is
restarted.
accept-ra (bool)
Accept Router Advertisement that would have the kernel configure IPv6 by itself. When enabled,
accept Router Advertisements. When disabled, do not respond to Router Advertisements. If unset
use the host kernel default setting.
addresses (sequence of scalars)
Add static addresses to the interface in addition to the ones received through DHCP or RA. Each
sequence entry is in CIDR notation, i. e. of the form addr/prefixlen. addr is an IPv4 or IPv6
address as recognized by inet_pton(3) and prefixlen the number of bits of the subnet.
Example: addresses: [192.168.14.2/24, "2001:1::1/64"]
gateway4, gateway6 (scalar)
Set default gateway for IPv4/6, for manual address configuration. This requires setting addresses
too. Gateway IPs must be in a form recognized by inet_pton(3).
Example for IPv4: gateway4: 172.16.0.1
Example for IPv6: gateway6: "2001:4::1"
nameservers (mapping)
Set DNS servers and search domains, for manual address configuration. There are two supported
fields: addresses: is a list of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses similar to gateway*, and search: is a list
of search domains.
Example:
ethernets:
id0:
[...]
nameservers:
search: [lab, home]
addresses: [8.8.8.8, "FEDC::1"]
macaddress (scalar)
Set the device's MAC address. The MAC address must be in the form "XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX".
Example:
ethernets:
id0:
[...]
macaddress: 52:54:00:6b:3c:59
optional (boolean)
An optional device is not required for booting. Normally, networkd will wait some time for device
to become configured before proceeding with booting. However, if a device is marked as optional,
networkd will not wait for it. This is only supported by networkd, and the default is false.
Example:
ethernets:
eth7:
# this is plugged into a test network that is often
# down - don't wait for it to come up during boot.
dhcp4: true
optional: true
Properties for device type ethernets:
Ethernet device definitions do not support any specific properties beyond the common ones described
above.
Properties for device type wifis:
Note that systemd-networkd does not natively support wifi, so you need wpasupplicant installed if you let
the networkd renderer handle wifi.
access-points (mapping)
This provides pre-configured connections to NetworkManager. Note that users can of course select
other access points/SSIDs. The keys of the mapping are the SSIDs, and the values are mappings
with the following supported properties:
password (scalar)
Enable WPA2 authentication and set the passphrase for it. If not given, the network is as‐
sumed to be open. Other authentication modes are not currently supported.
mode (scalar)
Possible access point modes are infrastructure (the default), ap (create an access point to
which other devices can connect), and adhoc (peer to peer networks without a central access
point). ap is only supported with NetworkManager.
Properties for device type bridges:
interfaces (sequence of scalars)
All devices matching this ID list will be added to the bridge.
Example:
ethernets:
switchports:
match: {name: "enp2*"}
[...]
bridges:
br0:
interfaces: [switchports]
parameters (mapping)
Customization parameters for special bridging options. Unless otherwise specified, parameter val‐
ues for time intervals should be expressed in milliseconds, but can also be expressed in seconds
using a time suffix (such as "s" for seconds, "ms" for milliseconds).
ageing-time (scalar)
Set the period of time (in seconds) to keep a MAC address in the forwarding database after
a packet is received. This maps to the AgeingTimeSec= property when the networkd renderer
is used.
priority (scalar)
Set the priority value for the bridge. This value should be a number between 0 and 65535.
Lower values mean higher priority. The bridge with the higher priority will be elected as
the root bridge.
port-priority (scalar)
Set the port priority to . The priority value is a number between 0 and 63. This metric
is used in the designated port and root port selection algorithms.
forward-delay (scalar)
Specify the period of time (in seconds) the bridge will remain in Listening and Learning
states before getting to the Forwarding state. This field maps to the ForwardDelaySec=
property for the networkd renderer.
hello-time (scalar)
Specify the interval (in seconds) between two hello packets being sent out from the root
and designated bridges. Hello packets communicate information about the network topology.
When the networkd renderer is used, this maps to the HelloTimeSec= property.
max-age (scalar)
Set the maximum age (in seconds) of a hello packet. If the last hello packet is older than
that value, the bridge will attempt to become the root bridge. This maps to the MaxAgeSec=
property when the networkd renderer is used.
path-cost (scalar)
Set the cost of a path on the bridge. Faster interfaces should have a lower cost. This
allows a finer control on the network topology so that the fastest paths are available
whenever possible.
stp (bool)
Define whether the bridge should use Spanning Tree Protocol. The default value is "true",
which means that Spanning Tree should be used.
Properties for device type bonds:
interfaces (sequence of scalars)
All devices matching this ID list will be added to the bond.
Example:
ethernets:
switchports:
match: {name: "enp2*"}
[...]
bonds:
bond0:
interfaces: [switchports]
parameters (mapping)
Customization parameters for special bonding options. Unless otherwise specified, parameter val‐
ues for time intervals should be expressed in milliseconds, but can also be expressed in seconds
using a time suffix (such as "s" for seconds, "ms" for milliseconds).
mode (scalar)
Set the bonding mode used for the interfaces. The default is balance-rr (round robin).
Possible values are balance-rr, active-backup, balance-xor, broadcast, 802.3ad, bal‐
ance-tlb, and balance-alb.
lacp-rate (scalar)
Set the rate at which LACPDUs are transmitted. This is only useful in 802.3ad mode. Pos‐
sible values are slow (30 seconds, default), and fast (every second).
mii-monitor-interval (scalar)
Specifies the interval for MII monitoring (verifying if an interface of the bond has carri‐
er). The default is 0; which disables MII monitoring. This is equivalent to the MIIMoni‐
torSec= field for the networkd backend.
min-links (scalar)
The minimum number of links up in a bond to consider the bond interface to be up.
transmit-hash-policy (scalar)
Specifies the transmit hash policy for the selection of slaves. This is only useful in
balance-xor, 802.3ad and balance-tlb modes. Possible values are layer2, layer3+4, lay‐
er2+3, encap2+3, and encap3+4.
ad-select (scalar)
Set the aggregation selection mode. Possible values are stable, bandwidth, and count.
This option is only used in 802.3ad mode.
all-slaves-active (bool)
If the bond should drop duplicate frames received on inactive ports, set this option to
false. If they should be delivered, set this option to true. The default value is false,
and is the desirable behavior in most situations.
arp-interval (scalar)
Set the interval value for how frequently ARP link monitoring should happen. The default
value is 0, which disables ARP monitoring. For the networkd backend, this maps to the
ARPIntervalSec= property.
arp-ip-targets (sequence of scalars)
IPs of other hosts on the link which should be sent ARP requests in order to validate that
a slave is up. This option is only used when arp-interval is set to a value other than 0.
At least one IP address must be given for ARP link monitoring to function. Only IPv4 ad‐
dresses are supported. You can specify up to 16 IP addresses. The default value is an
empty list.
arp-validate (scalar)
Configure how ARP replies are to be validated when using ARP link monitoring. Possible
values are none, active, backup, and all.
arp-all-targets (scalar)
Specify whether to use any ARP IP target being up as sufficient for a slave to be consid‐
ered up; or if all the targets must be up. This is only used for active-backup mode when
arp-validate is enabled. Possible values are any and all.
up-delay (scalar)
Specify the delay before enabling a link once the link is physically up. The default value
is 0. This maps to the UpDelaySec= property for the networkd renderer.
down-delay (scalar)
Specify the delay before disabling a link once the link has been lost. The default value
is 0. This maps to the DownDelaySec= property for the networkd renderer.
fail-over-mac-policy (scalar)
Set whether to set all slaves to the same MAC address when adding them to the bond, or how
else the system should handle MAC addresses. The possible values are none, active, and
follow.
gratuitious-arp (scalar)
Specify how many ARP packets to send after failover. Once a link is up on a new slave, a
notification is sent and possibly repeated if this value is set to a number greater than 1.
The default value is 1 and valid values are between 1 and 255. This only affects ac‐
tive-backup mode.
packets-per-slave (scalar)
In balance-rr mode, specifies the number of packets to transmit on a slave before switching
to the next. When this value is set to 0, slaves are chosen at random. Allowable values
are between 0 and 65535. The default value is 1. This setting is only used in balance-rr
mode.
primary-reselect-policy (scalar)
Set the reselection policy for the primary slave. On failure of the active slave, the sys‐
tem will use this policy to decide how the new active slave will be chosen and how recovery
will be handled. The possible values are always, better, and failure.
resend-igmp (scalar)
In modes balance-rr, active-backup, balance-tlb and balance-alb, a failover can switch IGMP
traffic from one slave to another.
This parameter specifies how many IGMP membership reports are issued on a failover event.
Values range from 0 to 255. 0 disables sending membership reports. Otherwise, the first
membership report is sent on failover and subsequent reports are sent at 200ms intervals.
learn-packet-interval (scalar)
Specify the interval (seconds) between sending learning packets to each slave. The value
range is between 1 and 0x7fffffff. The default value is 1. This option only affects bal‐
ance-tlb and balance-alb modes. Using the networkd renderer, this field maps to the Learn‐
PacketIntervalSec= property.
primary (scalar)
Specify a device to be used as a primary slave, or preferred device to use as a slave for
the bond (ie. the preferred device to send data through), whenever it is available. This
only affects active-backup, balance-alb, and balance-tlb modes.
Properties for device type vlans:
id (scalar)
VLAN ID, a number between 0 and 4094.
link (scalar)
netplan ID of the underlying device definition on which this VLAN gets created.
Example:
ethernets:
eno1: {...}
vlans:
en-intra:
id: 1
link: eno1
dhcp4: yes
en-vpn:
id: 2
link: eno1
address: ...
Examples
Configure an ethernet device with networkd, identified by its name, and enable DHCP:
network:
version: 2
ethernets:
eno1:
dhcp4: true
This is a complex example which shows most available features:
network:
version: 2
# if specified, can only realistically have that value, as networkd cannot
# render wifi/3G.
renderer: NetworkManager
ethernets:
# opaque ID for physical interfaces, only referred to by other stanzas
id0:
match:
macaddress: 00:11:22:33:44:55
wakeonlan: true
dhcp4: true
addresses:
- 192.168.14.2/24
- "2001:1::1/64"
gateway4: 192.168.14.1
gateway6: "2001:1::2"
nameservers:
search: [foo.local, bar.local]
addresses: [8.8.8.8]
routes:
- to: 0.0.0.0/0
via: 11.0.0.1
metric: 3
lom:
match:
driver: ixgbe
# you are responsible for setting tight enough match rules
# that only match one device if you use set-name
set-name: lom1
dhcp6: true
switchports:
# all cards on second PCI bus; unconfigured by themselves, will be added
# to br0 below (note: globbing is not supported by NetworkManager)
match:
name: enp2*
mtu: 1280
wifis:
all-wlans:
# useful on a system where you know there is only ever going to be one device
match: {}
access-points:
"Joe's home":
# mode defaults to "infrastructure" (client)
password: "s3kr1t"
# this creates an AP on wlp1s0 using hostapd; no match rules, thus ID is
# the interface name
wlp1s0:
access-points:
"guest":
mode: ap
# no WPA config implies default of open
bridges:
# the key name is the name for virtual (created) interfaces; no match: and
# set-name: allowed
br0:
# IDs of the components; switchports expands into multiple interfaces
interfaces: [wlp1s0, switchports]
dhcp4: true
AUTHORS
Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (<cyphermox@ubuntu.com>); Martin Pitt (<martin.pitt@ubuntu.com>).
netplan(5)