Enable mDNS to Ubuntu Server

What exactly is mDNS? Well, it allows for accessing your local network by hostnames, instead of IP addresses, without the need for a DNS setup

Here’s how to set it up (Ubuntu 24.x)

Check whether Global mDNS is set. You can do that just by running resolvectl

$ resolvectl mdns
Global: no
Link 2 (eno1): no

If it says no, then there are two steps – enable mDNS globally, and then to the interface. To enable globally edit /etc/systemd/resolved.conf to say

[Resolve]
...
MulticastDNS=yes
...

Note: Remove the # at the start of the entry!

Now determine the interface configuration

$ ls /run/systemd/network
10-netplan-enp0s8.network <-------

Now we need to create a directory and add in the override options – so first the directory

mkdir /etc/systemd/network/10-netplan-enp0s8.network.d/

And then the file

vi /etc/systemd/network/10-netplan-enp0s8.network.d/override.conf

Populate the file with

[Network]
MulticastDNS=yes

Reboot the machine. It should now be available on the network with the .local extension