IPTables won't start automatically after reboot - Red Hat 7

Question

In Red Hat 7 I'm trying to force the IP tables service to start automatically after reboot. Currently, after every reboot I need to run the command:

sudo systemctl start iptables

I've tried setting

sudo chkconfig iptables on

but it isn't running.

In my file /etc/sysconfig/iptables-config I've set

IPTABLES_SAVE_ON_STOP="yes" IPTABLES_SAVE_ON_RESTART="yes"

Can someone let me know how to set this to start on reboot?

Solution

As per RHEL7/Centos7 there is no iptables service available in the default install. Instead they want you to use firewalld which is turned on by default. (see man firewall-cmd for more information on how to operate firewalld )

If you want to use iptables u need to install iptables-services and enable them with systemctl enable iptables. You will need to turn off firewalld with systemctl disable firewalld.

If there isn't a really specific reason to use iptables or chkconfig I would advise you not use them. Instead I would invest in learning how firewalld and systemctl works.

Comments

[user9517]

You need to sit down with the documentation, things have moved on in the RHEL firewall world.

[David Tonhofer]

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=http --permanent and firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=https --permanent and then firewall-cmd --reload

[user2694306]

That didn't work. I still need to run the command every time that I restart.

[peterh]

Write more it works and what it does. You could split the command into new lines, instead of this semicolon-separated ultralong line. There is a vote about your answer, if it loses, it will be deleted.

[David Tonhofer]

Indeed, the files /etc/sysconfig/iptables (and /etc/sysconfig/ip6tables) to which should be written by the commands above (though not as given: the commands write to stdout, so you really would have to do iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables) are not read on boot. Time for firewalld then.