How to add permanent static routes in Ubuntu

Static routing is the term used to refer to the manual method used to set up routing. An administrator enters routes into the router using configuration commands. This method has the advantage of being predictable, and simple to set up. It is easy to manage in small networks but does not scale well.

Advantages of Static Routes

• Easy to configure
• No routing protocol overhead

Disadvantages of Static Routes

• Network changes require manual reconfiguration
• Network outages cannot be automatically routed around
• Does not scale well in large networks.

Add a Static route using "route" command

route add [-net|-host] <IP/Net> netmask <Mask> gw <Gateway IP> dev <Int>

Example

route add -net 10.10.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 route add -host 10.10.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.1.1 dev eth0

This adds the route immediatly to the Kernel IP routing table. To confirm the route has been successfully, simply type the "route" command with no arguements: route Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 10.10.1.0 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0 default 192.168.1.2 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0

Use "netstat -rn" to print the Kernel IP Routing table.

netstat -rn Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 10.10.1.0 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.2 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Setting A Persistent Static Route

To keep the Static Route persistent or you want to add the route entries to the network script files (not using the route command) then all you need to do is to edit the file

/etc/network/interfaces

and the static routes in the following format:

up route add [-net|-host] <host/net>/<mask> gw <host/IP> dev <Interface>

Example

up route add -net 10.10.1.0/24 gw 192.168.1.1 dev eth1

Run "sudo cat /etc/network/interfaces" and the output should show something like this:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5). # The loopback network interface auto lo iface lo inet loopback # The primary network interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 192.168.1.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 gateway 192.168.1.1 # dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package dns-nameservers 192.168.1.8 dns-search mydomain.com # Static route - switching VPN hardware w/ Remote Office up route add -net 10.10.1.0/24 gw 192.168.1.1 dev eth1

For the change to /etc/network/interfaces to take effect, restart the "networking" service as follows: sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

NOTE: If you added the route already using "route" then there is no need to restart the networking service because, the next time server is restarted this takes effect.

This command is also available for Windows with similar parameters. See here.