How do you set the primary IP on a RHEL4 server w/ multiple IP addresses?

systemsengineer · 02-20-2008, 03:25 PM

Hello all,
I have a RHEL4 server that hosts multiple websites, all w/ their own static address. I recently needed to open traffic up from one of the IPs to another server in my environment, and afterwards I noticed the default IP that my webserver uses to send traffic out is the last IP I added eth0:8. I really want it to be eth0 so that my firewall rules work. Does anyone know how you set the primary IP on box w/ multiple IPs?

Deleriux · 02-20-2008, 03:53 PM

I dont believe it is possible to change it at run time. Although its possible to rearrange your ip aliases to accomodate what you'd like as your primary address.

I would suggest just doing something like..

mv ifcfg-eth0 ifcfg-eth0:8.tmp
mv ifcfg-eth0:8 ifcfg-eth0
mv ifcfg-eth0:8.tmp ifcfg-eth0:8

service network restart.

Make sure theres someone around if you dont have local access to the machine

.

If you use "ip" instead of ifconfig, the first ip assigned to your network device is always primary.

systemsengineer · 02-20-2008, 08:23 PM

Thanks Deleriux. I realized I could change the aliases file, I was just wondering if there was a common way to do it when adding the IPs through the Network GUI.