Configure the XRA Management IP Address

By default, the XRA system will use DHCP to get its management IP. In some lab environments, this is not wanted. This page explains how you can configure a fixed IP on the management interface.

Since XRA version 5.2, we have switched from the network manager Wicd (unsupported as of Debian bullseye) to NetworkManager.

NetworkManager is considerably more flexible and allows you to configure both the MAN1 (device eno1) and MAN2 (device eno2) interfaces separately, both in IPv4 or IPv6 mode. Static Wicd IPv4 configurations are automatically migrated during an XRA system upgrade and are present in the connection profile "Migrated from wicd".

Right-click on the networking icon in the system tray to configure the management IP address: first via clicking on "Edit Connections..." and configuring the settings of a connection profile, next by toggling the checkbox "Enable Networking" twice to disable/re-enable networking to forcefully apply the settings.

All the configuration is done by using the Wicd tool on the system.

Start the Wicd graphical UI from either the main menu:

or via the network configuration icon on the bottom right on your screen

The main status and configuration window will open.

Click on "Properties" to change the configuration of the wired connection:

Select "Use Static IPs" and configure the IPv4 address, netmask, and gateway.

Configure DNS settings:

• DNS domain: your domain name
• (optional) Search domain: domains to search in when looking for a hostname
• DNS server: One or more DNS servers

Press "OK" to save the changes.

Disconnect and reconnect to apply the changes immediately.

Please note that existing network connections will be closed.

The connection will be established now with the new configuration.

Up to XRA version 3.1, there is a bug in Wicd Network Manager that causes connection problems for a static IP address (leading to "Not connected" status after clicking "Connect").

As a temporary workaround, please configure the static IP address settings as detailed above and perform the following additional steps after each system reboot.

1. Close the Wicd Network Manager. Right-click on the network configuration icon on the bottom right of your screen and click Quit.

2. From the main menu, open a command line (LXTerminal) and execute
   
   wicd-cli --wired -c
   
   

3. Run the command
   
   ip address show
   
   to verify the network settings have been successfully applied.

A permanent patch was included in XRA version 4.0 to make these steps unnecessary.