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What is the concept of renderer in a netplan configuration file?

What practical difference does it make between choosing a networkd and a NetworkNamager renderer?

Can anyone (in the second case) proceed with nmtui or nmcli?

pkaramol
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1 Answers1

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The difference the renderer makes, is the decision to run either systemd-networkd or NetworkManager. This distinction is identified by a file in /etc/netplan/*.yaml.

networkd is normally used in server installations, where the network environment is fairly static.

NetworkManager is normally used in desktop installations, and was used in all prior versions of Ubuntu. NetworkManager is easier to use in environments where network requirements change a lot... like in wireless networking. nmcli/nmtui/etc are NetworkManager commands.

To use NetworkManager, your /etc/netplan/*.yaml file should look like:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: NetworkManager

sudo netplan generate

sudo netplan apply

reboot

heynnema
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    so if I opt for `renderer: NetworkManager`, then I can run `nmcli` / `nmtui` to configure my network? what if I run nm and provide configurations that are conflicting with the ones in the `netplan` `.yml` file? which one (the config entered via nm or the `yaml` settings) prevails? – pkaramol Mar 03 '19 at 17:24
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    @pkaramol once you specify `renderer: NetworkManager` you're done with all .yaml files, and all normal NetworkManager commands can be used. All conflict or error scripts will need to be rectified via NM. – heynnema Mar 03 '19 at 17:28