Start a systemd service only after the network is actually up (network-online.target)
domain: systemd · 6 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
`After=network.target` only orders against network management startup — it does NOT guarantee routable connectivity or DNS. For services that need the network at start, use network-online.target with BOTH directives:
[Unit]
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Wants= is required as well as After=: After= alone is pure ordering and does not pull network-online.target into the transaction, so it may be skipped entirely.
network-online.target is only meaningful if a wait-online service is enabled: `systemctl is-enabled systemd-networkd-wait-online.service` (networkd systems) or `NetworkManager-wait-online.service` (NetworkManager systems). Enable the one matching your network manager.
Check the real cost: `systemd-analyze blame | head` — wait-online often dominates boot time. On multi-NIC hosts, scope it: `systemd-networkd-wait-online --interface=eth0` via a drop-in, or NetworkManager-wait-online with `nm-online -s` semantics.
For services that can start degraded, prefer making the app retry DNS/connect in code and keep only After=network.target — this is the systemd-recommended pattern for robustness.
For shutdown ordering remember Before/After invert at shutdown: a unit ordered After=network-online.target is stopped before the network goes down, which is what network clients want.
Known gotchas
The most common failure: DNS resolution errors (Temporary failure in name resolution) at boot even though the service is 'after network.target' — that target says nothing about connectivity.
Adding Wants=network-online.target without an enabled *-wait-online service silently changes nothing — the target activates immediately.
wait-online can add 10-120s to boot if an interface is configured but unplugged; scope it to required interfaces or set a timeout to avoid hanging boots.
DHCP leases arriving after 'online' still happen with NetworkManager unless NetworkManager-wait-online is enabled; check `nm-online` exit code semantics when scripting.
Cloud instances: cloud-init ordering interacts here; services needing cloud-init-written config should be After=cloud-init.service, not just network-online.
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