cloud-init network config 2 rename does not match with name

[Chaynika Saikia]

Looking at the source code of cloud-init, when it tries to read a network configuration file, it looks for MAC address. Looking at the source code, it gives an impression that MAC address is a requirement to rename interfaces.

However, looking at this documentation, https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/network-config-format-v2.html , it mentions that if I want to rename a network interface, I can use either name, macaddress or driver.

This is the most misleading part because, firstly, the source code does NOT search through 'name' and uses 'device_id' instead, whereas the documentation says:
"name: <(scalar)>

Current interface name. Globs are supported, and the primary use case for matching on names, as selecting one fixed name can be more easily achieved with having no match: at all and just using the ID (see above). Note that currently only networkd supports globbing, NetworkManager does not."

[Ryan Harper (raharper)]

Hi,

Thanks for filing the bug. You're right that the current code does not handle interface renames when using netplan (v2) config during boot which means that the only currently supported rename operations happen if a macaddress is provided.

[M (martenbe)]

I was looking for a few days until I found this bug report. The documentation and behavior still don't match: is there any update on this?

[Alberto Contreras (aciba)]

Thanks, martenbe, for pinging about this issue. AFAIK, there is no update about this but it should be addressed and clarified in the docs.

Tracking in SC-1464.

[James Falcon (falcojr)]

Tracked in Github Issues as https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/issues/3229