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SCN-00000014 – ExacqVision Servers with Ubuntu 18.04 and Higher Network Troubleshooting

SCN #SCN-00000014
Title of SCNExacqVision Servers with Ubuntu 18.04 and Higher Network Troubleshooting
TRAC #
Effective VersionApril, 2019
Products AffectedServer
Reason for Change (Summary)Hardware manufacturing is now shipping all Linux systems (except the M-Series) with Ubuntu 18.04.

Change

Network troubleshooting in exacqVision Ubuntu systems has traditionally been accomplished using the ifupdown package of tools and commands.  ‘ifupdown’ is now deprecated as of Ubuntu 18.04 and we have switched to ‘systemd-networkd’.  This means that several of the “standard” operations to troubleshoot and resolve network level issues using the Terminal will no longer work.

For instance, sometimes it is necessary to set an interface back to DHCP without the exacqVision software running.  This process involved stopping the server service, using ‘ifdown’ to bring the interface offline, manually editing /etc/network/interfaces, using ‘ifup’ to bring the interface back up, and re-starting the Server service. 

While ‘networkd’ has significantly improved functionality, most of the old deprecated commands do have a similar counterpart in 18.04.  The table below outlines the old “Deprecated” command compared to its “New” counterpart.

ACTIONDEPRECATEDNEW
Display status of current network configuration.ifconfigip addr
Display status of specified interface.ifconfig Data_Portip addr show Data_Port
Bring a specified interface down.ifdown Mgmt_Portip link set Mgmt_Port down
Bring a specified interface up.ifup eth1ip link set eth1 up
Restart all networking./etc/init.d/networking restartsystemctl restart systemd-networkd.service

Other information

Rather than finding the networking information in /etc/network/interfaces, you will now find multiple configuration files in /etc/systemd/network/ directory with names matching the interfaces, such as “Data_Port.network”

Here is an example network file with a Static configuration for the file /etc/systemd/network/Mgmt_Port.network:

[Match]
Name=Mgmt_Port

[Network]
ConfigureWithoutCarrier=true
Address=192.168.58.3/24
DNS=8.8.8.8
[DHCP] ClientIdentifier=mac

NOTE: The subnet mask is no longer set by hand using the “255.255.255.0” format.  You will need to know the “slash” format for the subnet needed. See the Additional Documentation links for an online IP-Subnet-Calculator.


Here is an example file configured for DHCP:

[Match]
Name=Data_Port

[Network]
DHCP=yes
[DHCP] ClientIdentifier=mac


To manually reset a NIC back to DHCP without using the exacqVision software, use the following steps:


  1.  Stop the exacqVision Server service with:
     sudo service edvrserver stop

  2.  Bring the specified interface down with:

     sudo ip link set Mgmt_Port down

  3.  Open the specified interface config file in a text editor with:

     sudo nano /etc/systemd/network/Mgmt_Port

  4.  Delete the lines between [Match] and [DHCP]

  5.  Add a new line in their place that reads:

     DHCP=yes

  6.  Close nano with ‘Ctl-X’ and type Y to save the file.

  7.  Bring the interface back up with:

     sudo ip link set Mgmt_Port up


  8.  Start the exacqVision Server service with:
     sudo service edvrserver start

Additional Documentation

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/systemd-networkd

https://linux.die.net/man/8/ip

https://trac.exacq.com/DVR/ticket/16749

https://www.calculator.net/ip-subnet-calculator.html