Discuss how to make networking more consistant and robust

Registered by Bryan Quigley

This discussion could cover 12.04, 14.04, & Future releases. We can improve how networking is configured, managed, transparent, and tested.
Configuration Example: Why do we ever have to use pre-up in the interfaces file to set MTU?
Management Example: What's the safest and easiest way to restart networking, so it consistent to rebooting the system?
Transparent Example: How do we communicate better about networking best practices on Ubuntu?
Test Example: What scenarios should we be QAing that we aren't?

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
None
Priority:
Undefined
Drafter:
Bryan Quigley
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
None
Definition:
Discussion
Series goal:
None
Implementation:
Unknown
Milestone target:
None

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

[ritz]
Use nmcli ? or continue with current scripts to provide a more consistent interface between precise and trusty.

for future release - systemd has added support for network
http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-networkd.service.html

This along with NetworkManager

[bryanquigley]
Current status of networking scripts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OBN3efJ1LmA0-0DzD3K0eUkIuQdscxLQ-QO1yi3bHeM/edit?usp=sharing

[arges]
Discussion on ML: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2014-March/014877.html

UDS session agenda:
Network restart and documentation consistency
ifupdown requires state understanding
bond interfaces and vlans and bridging
MTUs and other complex configuration
NetworkManager is out of scope since we believe that solutions to all problem cases were covered on the mailing list, and nobody objected.

Notes:
pre-up/post-up should never need to be used.

Conclusions:
Networking restart and config state changes: work item to discover and document current solutions; there were no volunteers to implement any other solution.
Non-deterministic and other problems with common use cases: work item to file public bugs on these issues so that they can be investigated
MTU configuration: work item to resolve this issue

(?)

Work Items

Work items:
[stgraber] add MTU support to ifupdown: DONE
[bryanquigley] file some initial public bugs of the most critical cases (eg. around three) which do not behave correctly (or non-deterministically): DONE
[louis] investigate and document how to handle network restart and configuration changes without reboot in the server guide, together with any caveats: TODO
[stgraber] Release what's already being QAed: TODO