How to Add/Remove network interfaces to a running zone container

Well good morning everyone. This is a quick tutorial on how to add a network interface to a running zone container in solaris 10, without have to go through the trouble of rebooting the zone. Also not e that this configuration change will persist between reboots. With that being said lets get to it.


First you add the entry to the zone configuration. This is the part that lets it persist between reboots. This is done from the global zone:

# zonecfg -z zone1
zonecfg:slabzone1> add net
zonecfg:slabzone1:net> set address=XXX.XXX.XX.XXX
zonecfg:slabzone1:net> set physical=e1000g0
zonecfg:slabzone1:net> end
zonecfg:slabzone1> verify
zonecfg:slabzone1> commit
zonecfg:slabzone1> exitNow we have to manually add a new interface to the running zone. Do this from the global zone as well

# ifconfig e1000g0 addif XXX.XXX.XX.XXX netmask XXX.XXX.X.X zone zone1 up

Created new logical interface e1000g0:3

Note: The ‘addif’ tells ifconfig to create a logical interface using the next available.

# ifconfig -a
lo0:1: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
e1000g0:1: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2 inet XXX.XXX.XX.XXX netmask ffffff00 broadcast XXX.XXX.XX.XXX
e1000g0:3: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2 inet XXX.XXX.XX.XXX netmask ffffff00 broadcast XXX.XXX.XX.XXX

That's it! you're done.

In case you want to remove the interface -

To remove the interface from a running zone. From the global zone, remove the interface. You must first determine which logical interface [alias] you wish to remove.

# ifconfig e1000g0:3 down
# ifconfig e1000g0:3 unplumb
# zonecfg -z zone1
zonecfg:slabzone1> remove net address=XXX.XXX.XX.XXX
zonecfg:slabzone1> commit
zonecfg:slabzone1> exit

All Done Now you can enjoy your newly added interface lol :)