6.1 Everything as the installer specifies

The installer sets up a few files, including the following:

• /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
  This file specifies which symbolic name is associated with which MAC ID. This step needs to be performed, first. From this step, the other step refers to the NIC via the symbolic name.
• /etc/network/interfaces
  This file specifies how to connect the NIC to a TCP/IP address. Whether the NIC should be connected via DHCP or static IP address, this file specifies it. When the system starts up, it automatically looks into this file and perform the necessary ifconfig and optionally dhclient operations.

If these files match the run time environment (after installation), then nothing needs to be done. You can still use ifconfig, route and other commands to inquire the status of the network connection, but there is usually no need to make any changes.