This talk introduces ifupdown2, a new network interface manager for Debian. ifupdown2 is a rewrite of ifupdown. It maintains backward compatibility with ifupdown.
ifupdown2 is used on Cumulus Linux, a Debian based distribution for network switches.
Existing tools for network interface configuration have several shortcomings when applied to network switches. These challenges include the lack of ability to handle interface dependencies, incremental updates to interface configuration without disruption, interface configuration validation and simplifying interface configuration in large scale deployments. The lack of such functionality increases operational burden.
ifupdown2 attempts to solve these challenges through an implementation based on dependency graphs, querying running state before applying interface configuration, extensions to ifquery to support validation of interface configuration, templates for large scale cookie-cutter interface configurations, JSON support and more.
ifupdown2 on github: https://github.com/CumulusNetworks/ifupdown2 ifupdown2 documentation on github: http://cumulusnetworks.github.io/ifupdown2/