Start Interface With No IP Address

(2018-06-19)

Problem

I want a network interface on my CentOS 7 system to start at boot time but I don't want it to have an IP address.

Solution

Define the interface with a static IP, then edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-$INTERFACE and comment out the IPADDR and PREFIX values. Reboot and you are good to go.

Why?

Well in this case it's because the machine is going to host a whack of VMs on this interface and the host doesn't need to talk out of it as it has other interface(s) to do that with. In the past I've wanted to do this to run fprobe or a similar network sniffer program.