How to Set a Static IP on Ubuntu (Netplan) with DNS Failover

22 July 2025 - less than 1 min read time
Tags: Raspberry Pi Linux How To ubuntu networking netplan static-ip dns

Ookla-cli

Modern Ubuntu uses Netplan for network configuration. Netplan’s YAML makes it simple to assign a static IP, configure routes, and set reliable DNS servers with failover.

1. Identify Your Network Interface

List interfaces:

ip addr

Find your wired interface (for example enp1s0).

2. Create or Edit a Netplan Config

Create /etc/netplan/01-ethernet.yaml:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-ethernet.yaml

Add:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp1s0:
      dhcp4: false
      addresses:
        - 192.168.50.4/24
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 192.168.50.1
      nameservers:
        addresses:
          - 1.1.1.1
          - 8.8.8.8

3. Fix Permissions

sudo chmod 600 /etc/netplan/01-ethernet.yaml

4. Disable Cloud-Init DHCP

If /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml exists, rename it:

sudo mv /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml.disabled

5. Apply Settings

sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

6. Verify

ip addr show enp1s0
ping -c 3 8.8.8.8
ping -c 3 google.com

Why Two DNS Servers?

Specifying two DNS servers gives automatic failover. If Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) is unavailable, your system falls back to Google (8.8.8.8).

Conclusion

With this configuration, your machine has: