Applies to:
Linux OS - Version Oracle Linux 5.5 and later
Linux x86-64
Symptoms
Network manager throws an error in /var/log/messages:
nm-system-settings: ifcfg-rh: error: Missing or invalid IP4 prefix '0'
Cause
This issue is caused by Network Manager. One of the network components, 'nm-system-settings' periodically scans the system configuration looking for the events & then alerts the NetworkManager for the same.
Solution
By default, NIC's belong to NetworkManager. Any NIC configuration file not having "NM_CONTROLLED=no" is considered too.
Please add a line to ethernet configuration file under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts. Eg: In this case, the file should be updated is /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth4
And then restart your network.
If the issue still persists, then please try to disable Network Manager as follows:
# service NetworkManager stop
# chkconfig NetworkManager off
NetworkManager is just an interface to manage network and on setting nm_settings will effect the network configuration on the device.
There will not be any impact on disabling NetworkManager on the node. After disabling Network Manger, changes should take effect the next time the system boot.