Set a static IP address in FreeBSD

Default Configuration of the Network on FreeBSD is DHCP. Let me show you how to change or set IP addresses from Dynamic to Static. i will take this example from my FreeBSD  VM. but that should work  also for bare metal servers.

My   Network Configuration i :

root@FreeBSD12:~ # ifconfig
em0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=81009b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWFILTER>
ether 00:0c:29:ac:76:78
inet6 fe80::20c:29ff:feac:7678%em0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 192.168.65.162 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.65.255
media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
status: active
nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
options=680003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,LINKSTATE,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
groups: lo
nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
root@FreeBSD12:~ #

Netmask  : This 0xffffff00 is written in dotted-quad notation as 255.255.255.0

Find  My gateway

root@FreeBSD12:~ # netstat -rn
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Netif Expire
default 192.168.65.2 UGS em0
127.0.0.1 link#2 UH lo0
192.168.65.0/24 link#1 U em0
192.168.65.162 link#1 UHS lo0

DNS Server

Because its an VM, the DNS server is the same as the gateway. in your case my DNS is something else.

root@FreeBSD12:~ # cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Generated by resolvconf
search localdomain
nameserver 192.168.65.2

The actual status of rc.conf file.

Lets  change  the Ip from  DHCP to static  ip  192.168.65.10 / default  gateway is 192.168.65.2 with adding the two lines  to  rc.conf

ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.65.10 netmask 255.255.250.0"
defaultrouter="192.168.65.2"

Restart the network Services with.

/etc/netstart

Waaw cool !!

Connect from Other Server and see if the new Ip working

➤ ssh [email protected]
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.65.10' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password for [email protected]:
Last login: Tue Dec 11 11:55:04 2018 from 192.168.65.1
FreeBSD 12.0GENERIC

Welcome to FreeBSD!

Enjoy