The following guide covers how to manually change your IP address on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. These distros use netplan for network management, so the guide will explain how to modify the IP configuration through that.

Changing your IP address

Login to your OPC server via SSH, and cd /etc/netplan

Within this directory (ls), you should be able to see one of two files:

• 00-installer-config.yaml

• 50-cloud-init.yaml

This file is what you will need to modify with your new network configuration.

If you open the file with a text editor (i.e. vi or nano), it should look similar to this:

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens160:
            dhcp4: true
            match:
                macaddress: 00:0c:29:f0:92:c3
            set-name: ens160
    version: 2
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In this example, the NIC ens160 is configured for DHCP on IPv4, and it is set to match the mac address of the NIC. We want to disable that DHCP configuration, and specify a static IP in its place.

To set a static IP, you need to modify the file to include the IP configuration

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens160:
            dhcp4: false
            addresses: [{IP in CIDR notation}]
            gateway4: {Gateway IP}
            nameservers:
              addresses: [{DNS servers in comma separated list}]
            match:
                macaddress: 00:0c:29:f0:92:c3
            set-name: ens160
    version: 2
 copy

If you are not sure of the CIDR notation for your IP address, you can find it by comparing the subnet mask against the CIDR.

Some of the more common subnet sizes are in the table below:

As an example, this is what it should look like once completed:

# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource.  Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot.  To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
    ethernets:
        ens160:
            dhcp4: false
            addresses: [192.168.1.100/24]
            gateway4: 192.168.1.1
            nameservers:
              addresses: [1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1]
            match:
                macaddress: 00:0c:29:f0:92:c3
            set-name: ens160
    version: 2
 copy

If you are modifying the 50-cloud-init.yaml file, this configuration file will be reset on reboot unless cloud-init is disabled. To do that, create a file called /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg containing the following line:

network: {config: disabled}
 copy

Once you have modified the file, apply the changes with sudo netplan apply, and to confirm, run the command ip addr to list the configured IP addresses on the server.

Configuring the OPC

After changing your IP address, you will need to inform the OPC that the IP address has changed. You can do so with the following command:

sudo opc config set --host-address '{ip_address]'
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If you allow access to your Deskpro instance via the IP address, you will also need to switch that on for the new IP. Log in to the OPC via the web interface, then select your instance, and under Access via IP Address, enable access for your new IP.

Final Steps

If you have been using a hostname or a proxy to access your instance, you may need to configure your DNS to use the new IP address, or configure your proxy to direct traffic to your new IP address.

If you are not using a domain and accessing the instance using an IP, navigate to Admin > Configuration > Branding, select the relevant brand, and review the settings in the right-hand panel to ensure that the configured domain reflects the new IP address.

By following these steps, you can ensure seamless access to your Deskpro instance after changing your IP address.