[CentOS] NetworkManager on servers

Mon Feb 10 13:47:20 UTC 2020
Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net>

Once upon a time, Stephen John Smoogen <smooge at gmail.com> said:
> The reason is that having 1 way to configure networks makes it so the
> developer and tech support only have to diagnose issues from 1 set of tools
> versus two different ones (and occasionally 2 competing ones if both are
> trying to do their job at the same time).

Not only that - the hodge-podge bash network scripts are kind of a mess.
It is impressive that they do what they do so reliably after so long,
but every new feature appears to have been hacked in by a different
developer, leaving parts of them almost indecipherable.

That's not intended as a criticism of the scripts or the people who
wrote that code - it's just that IMHO they managed to go beyond what is
reasonable in bash scripting, which makes for a difficult to read (and
I'm sure fix/extend) set of scripts.

And even on servers now, there are often dynamic network changes that
work much better with NetworkManager than the old-style static scripts.
Containers, VMs, and VPNs all come and go, and work better with a single
system configuring their networks (rather than each layer implementing
their own setup).
-- 
Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net>