📖 ~1 min read
Table of contents
Symptom & Impact
Expected access policy disappears after reboot, causing intermittent service outages or policy drift.
Environment & Reproduction
RHEL 8 firewalld-managed host with custom rich rules applied through CLI or ad-hoc scripts.
Root Cause Analysis
Rule was added to runtime only and never committed to permanent configuration.
Quick Triage
Compare firewall-cmd –list-rich-rules with firewall-cmd –permanent –list-rich-rules for active zone.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis
Review firewalld journal entries around reboot and configuration reload events.
Solution – Primary Fix
Re-add rule with –permanent, then firewall-cmd –reload. Optionally use –runtime-to-permanent after controlled verification.
Still having issues? Our IT Solutions & Services team can diagnose and resolve this for you. Get in touch for a free consultation.
Solution – Alternative Approaches
Reboot and confirm rule still present and access behavior matches intended security policy.
Verification & Acceptance Criteria
Remove incorrect permanent rule quickly with firewall-cmd –permanent –remove-rich-rule and reload.
Rollback Plan
Disallow manual runtime-only firewall changes in production and enforce policy via managed configuration.
Prevention & Hardening
Persistent firewall policy is required to maintain predictable security controls across reboots.
Related Errors & Cross-Refs
Run periodic drift checks comparing runtime and permanent firewalld state and alert on differences.
Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for rhel-8.
View all rhel-8 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →
Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.
References & Further Reading
firewall-cmd(1), firewalld.richlanguage(5), and RHEL 8 network security documentation.
Need Expert Help?
If you cannot resolve this yourself, our team offers hands-on Server Management, Managed IT Services, and flexible Support Plans. Contact us today — we respond within one business day.
