Re: Server Environments & Proper way to Disable

[Pavel Simerda <psimerda redhat com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jorge Fábregas" <jorge fabregas gmail com>
> To: networkmanager-list gnome org
> Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2014 4:04:02 PM
> Subject: Server Environments & Proper way to Disable
>
> Hi,
>
> Considering that NetworkManager is much mature these days (F20, RHEL7
> ON...), is there a benefit of running it on *server environments*? In
> such environments:

Hi,

we upstream developers believe that future versions of NetworkManager will have substantial benefits over 
script based solutions. Some of those features are already available on some distributions even though there 
isn't an official 0.9.10 release, yet. Fedora networking is currently pretty much settled on NetworkManager, 
while there are other possibilities. For RHEL7, please contact your support representatives.

> - the server is not going to be changing connections constantly...

Some servers may be using DHCP. Some servers may be using automatically configured IPv6 via router discovery 
and optionally DHCP. Others may be connecting to dynamic VPN services. NetworkManager provides flexibility 
and a lot of features that can be used on servers.

> - NM won't be receiving D-BUS signals from other apps that much or at all...

There are already a couple of projects that belong to the base system and can talk to NetworkManager or 
NetworkManager can talk to them. There is also the NetworkManager CLI tool that uses D-Bus to talk to 
NetworkManager.

> - you'll get the benefit of running one less daemon if you disable it...

Indeed.
 
> To put it another way, what might I be missing if I disable NM on a
> typical server environment?

It depends purely on the tools you are using instead of NetworkManager and thus on the Distribution you are 
using.

> Also, just to make sure.  Would you consider this the proper way to
> disable/remove NM in favor of the legacy service?
>
> #1.  Remove NM
> systemctl stop NetworkManager
> systemctl disable NetworkManager

Yes, according to at least some comments to the Fedora bug:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=815243

I would suggest you to swap the order, though, to avoid D-Bus activation before the stop command is called. 
The specific procedure may depend on your distribution and how they integrate NetworkManager with the system.

> yum remove NetworkManager

That is sometimes possible but sometimes you may have dependent packages that would be uninstalled as well.

Cheers,

Pavel

> #2.  Config file
> Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/icfg-*
> and add:
> NM_CONTROLLED=no
> HWADDR=<your-NIC-MAC> (if it's not already there)
>
> p.d. even though NM is removed, I still put NM_CONTROLLED just in case
> it gets installed in a future time.
>
> #3. Assign gateway
> Edit /etc/sysconfig/network
>
> #4.  DNS
> Make sure correct entries are in /etc/resolv.conf
>
> #5. Enable Legacy Network
> systemctl enable network
> systemctl start network
>
> Thanks!
>
> Regards,
> Jorge
>
>
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