RHEL 10 – NetworkManager profile missing after reboot causing network loss – Fix & Prevention

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Server loses network configuration after reboot, causing service downtime.

Environment & Reproduction

Profile was created temporarily and not saved to disk.

nmcli connection show
reboot

Root Cause Analysis

Connection is marked volatile or ifcfg/keyfile did not persist due permissions or tooling mismatch.

Quick Triage

Inspect active and persistent NM profiles.

nmcli -f NAME,UUID,TYPE,DEVICE connection show
ls -l /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Check NetworkManager logs and profile file ownership.

journalctl -u NetworkManager -b --no-pager
stat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*

Solution – Primary Fix

Recreate profile persistently and reload NetworkManager.

sudo nmcli connection add type ethernet ifname ens160 con-name prod-lan ipv4.addresses 10.10.10.20/24 ipv4.gateway 10.10.10.1 ipv4.method manual
sudo chmod 600 /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*.nmconnection
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Manage network profiles via nmstate or Ansible for repeatability.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Connection auto-activates after reboot and routes are correct.

nmcli connection show --active
ip route

Rollback Plan

Restore previous profile backup and restart NetworkManager.

Prevention & Hardening

Prohibit ad hoc temporary profiles on production nodes and enforce config-as-code.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Can coincide with DHCP lease issues, interface renaming, and cloud-init overrides.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for rhel-10.

View all rhel-10 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

NetworkManager and nmcli administration references for RHEL.