How to Disable Iptables Firewall on RHEL 6

RHEL 6 comes with the iptables firewall enabled by default to provide basic network protection. However, in some cases, it may be necessary to disable the firewall temporarily or permanently. Disabling the firewall can help in troubleshooting network issues or testing network connectivity, among other reasons.

In this tutorial, we will go through the steps required to disable the iptables firewall on RHEL 6. We will also explain the commands used and their functions.

Step 1: Check Firewall Status

Before disabling the firewall, it is essential to check the current status of the iptables firewall. The following command can be used to verify if the firewall is enabled:

iptables -L

This command will display the current status of the firewall, including the rules and policies set. If the output shows any rules, it means the firewall is enabled.

Step 2: Save Settings

Before stopoing the iptables, save the firewall setting using the following command:

[root@rhel6 ~]# service iptables save
iptables: Saving firewall rules to /etc/sysconfig/iptables:[  OK  ]

Step 3: Stop iptables Service

To disable the iptables firewall temporarily, we need to stop the iptables service. We can use the following command to stop the service:

service iptables stop

This command will stop the iptables service, and the firewall will be disabled. However, this change will not persist after a reboot.

[root@rhel6 ~]# service iptables stop
iptables: Flushing firewall rules:                         [  OK  ]
iptables: Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter          [  OK  ]
iptables: Unloading modules:                               [  OK  ]

Step 4: Disable iptables Service Permanently

To disable the iptables firewall permanently, we need to prevent the iptables service from starting automatically on system boot. We can use the following command to achieve this:

chkconfig iptables off

This command will disable the iptables service permanently, and the firewall will not start automatically after a reboot.

Step 5: Verify Firewall Status

After stopping the iptables service and disabling it permanently, we can verify the firewall status again to confirm that it is disabled. We can use the following command to check the firewall status:

iptables -L

If the output shows that no rules are set, it means the firewall is disabled.

IPv6 Firewall

If you have IPv6 firewall is enabled, disable it using the following commands:

[root@rhel6 ~]# service ip6tables save
ip6tables: Saving firewall rules to /etc/sysconfig/ip6table[  OK  ]
[root@rhel6 ~]# service ip6tables stop
ip6tables: Flushing firewall rules:                        [  OK  ]
ip6tables: Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter         [  OK  ]
ip6tables: Unloading modules:                              [  OK  ]
[root@rhel6 ~]# chkconfig ip6tables off

Commands Mentioned:

• iptables – command-line firewall utility for IPv4 packet filtering and NAT
• service – command used to manage system services in RHEL
• chkconfig – command used to configure system services to start or stop automatically during system startup

Conclusion:

We have gone through the steps required to disable the iptables firewall on RHEL 6. We first checked the current status of the firewall, then stopped the iptables service to disable it temporarily. Finally, we disabled the iptables service permanently to prevent the firewall from starting automatically after a reboot. By following these steps, we were able to disable the iptables firewall on RHEL 6.

It is worth noting that disabling the firewall can expose your system to network attacks, and it should only be done for troubleshooting or testing purposes. It is recommended to enable the firewall as soon as possible after completing your tasks.

We hope this tutorial was helpful. If you have any comments or suggestions for improvements, please let us know in the comments.