Disable NetworkManager In RHEL 8 & Use Legacy network

You can disable NetworkManager in RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 and still use the old network service/utility to manage network. You can also have the two services started, enabled and used at the same time just as it can be done in RHEL 7 / CentOS 7

Contents

STEP BY STEP PROCESS
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Prior to RHEL 8 systems, the network service(network-scripts) used to be the default when you install Red Hat systems or CentOS systems. It has not only been replaced by NetworkManager daemon in RHEL 8 and CentOS 8 systems, it has also been deprecated.

However, you can disable NetworkManager and still use the old network service(network-scripts) to manage network , you can also use both services if you wish just as it can be done in RHEL/CentOS 7.

Follow the step by step process below to achieve this aim.

How To Disable NetworkManager In RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 To Use The Old network Service

STEPS

1. Install the network-scripts package

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# yum install network-scripts

Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream (RPMs)         2.1 kB/s | 4.5 kB     00:02

Installed:
  network-scripts-10.00.6-1.el8.x86_64                        network-scripts-team-1.29-1.el8.x86_64

Complete!

2. Verify the network-scripts files

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# ls /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

ifcfg-ens33  ifdown-ippp    ifdown-sit       ifup-aliases  ifup-isdn    ifup-sit       init.ipv6-global
ifcfg-lo     ifdown-ipv6    ifdown-Team      ifup-bnep     ifup-plip    ifup-Team      network-functions

3. Edit the NIC file you don’t want NetworkManager to manage just as it is done the old way

Add “NM_Controlled=no” at the end of the NIC config file

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# vim ifcfg-ens33

4. Stop the NetworkManager service

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# systemctl stop NetworkManager

5. Disable the NetworkManager service

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# systemctl disable  NetworkManager

Removed /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/NetworkManager.service.
Removed /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service.
Removed /etc/systemd/system/network-online.target.wants/NetworkManager-wait-online.service.
[root@HQDEV1 ~]#

6. Start the netowrk service

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# systemctl start network.service

7. You may need to bring down the associated NIC & restart network if network fails to start

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# ifdown ens33

7. Enable the network service

[root@HQDEV1 ~]# systemctl enable network.service

network.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable network
[root@HQDEV1 ~]#