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iptables Rules Not Persisting After Reboot — Firewall Configuration Lost

Warningnetwork

Overview

Fix iptables firewall rules disappearing after system reboot because rules are stored in memory and not saved to persistent configuration files.

Key Details

  • iptables rules are stored in kernel memory and are lost when the system reboots
  • Rules must be explicitly saved to a file and restored on boot to persist
  • Different distributions use different persistence methods: iptables-persistent (Debian/Ubuntu), iptables-services (RHEL/CentOS)
  • nftables is the successor to iptables on modern Linux distributions
  • Docker, Kubernetes, and other container runtimes add their own iptables rules dynamically

Common Causes

  • iptables-persistent or iptables-services package not installed
  • Rules saved with iptables-save but not configured to restore on boot
  • Firewalld or ufw overriding iptables rules on startup
  • Docker or Kubernetes resetting iptables chains on container runtime restart

Steps

  1. 1Debian/Ubuntu: install iptables-persistent: apt install iptables-persistent (saves rules during install)
  2. 2Save rules manually: iptables-save > /etc/iptables/rules.v4 (Debian) or iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables (RHEL)
  3. 3RHEL/CentOS: install and enable iptables-services: yum install iptables-services && systemctl enable iptables
  4. 4Verify rules load on boot: reboot and check with iptables -L -n -v
  5. 5Consider migrating to nftables or firewalld which have built-in persistence

Tags

iptablesfirewallpersistencerebootnetwork-security

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Frequently Asked Questions

On modern distributions (Debian 10+, RHEL 8+, Ubuntu 20.04+), yes. nftables is the successor with better performance, simpler syntax, and built-in persistence. Most distributions already use nftables behind an iptables compatibility layer.