Network Commands
Curated reference for Proxmox host networking: interface info, connectivity tests, configuration, traffic monitoring and firewall management. Combines ip / ss / nmcli / ethtool / tcpdump / pve-firewall.
Quick interface inventory
ip a shows every interface with its IPs and MAC. ip r shows the routing table. Together they answer most "is this interface configured correctly?" questions in seconds.Network Information
| Command | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ip a | Show network interfaces and IPs | |
| ip r | Show routing table | |
| ip -s link | Show traffic statistics per interface | |
| brctl show | Show configured network bridges | |
| cat /etc/network/interfaces | Show raw network configuration |
Network Testing
| Command | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ping <host> | Check connectivity with another host | |
| traceroute <host> | Trace route to a host | |
| mtr <host> | Combine ping and traceroute in real-time | |
| dig <domain> | DNS lookup for a domain | |
| nslookup <domain> | Alternative DNS lookup |
Network Configuration
| Command | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ifreload -a | Reload network configuration (ifupdown2) | |
| ethtool <iface> | Show Ethernet device info | |
| resolvectl status | Show DNS resolution status | |
| nmcli device show | Show network device details (if NetworkManager is used) | |
| ip link set <iface> up | Bring network interface up | |
| ip link set <iface> down | Bring network interface down |
Network Monitoring
| Command | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ss -tuln | Show listening ports (TCP/UDP) | |
| netstat -tuln | Alternative to show listening ports | |
| lsof -i | List open network files and connections | |
| tcpdump -i <iface> | Capture packets on interface | |
| iftop -i <iface> | Monitor bandwidth usage on interface |
Firewall Management
| Command | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| iptables -L -n -v | Show active firewall rules (iptables) | |
| nft list ruleset | Show nftables rules | |
| pve-firewall status | Check Proxmox firewall status | |
| pve-firewall compile | Compile firewall rules for all nodes | |
| pve-firewall reload | Reload Proxmox firewall rules |
iptables vs nftables
Modern Debian / Proxmox uses nftables as the underlying firewall engine. The classic
iptables -L -n -v command still works as a translation layer, but the source of truth is nft list ruleset. pve-firewall commands are Proxmox's wrapper that emits nftables rules from the cluster firewall config.Related
- Network Management — ProxMenux interactive network tools (bridge analysis, persistent names, monitoring).
- System CLI Tools — more network monitoring tools.
- Help and Info overview.