diff --git a/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/constructors.go b/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/constructors.go
index 93bce4d8..9d83271f 100644
--- a/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/constructors.go
+++ b/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/constructors.go
@@ -2,9 +2,11 @@ package warewulfconf
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"github.com/brotherpowers/ipsubnet"
 	"github.com/hpcng/warewulf/internal/pkg/wwlog"
 	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"net"
 )
 
 func New() (ControllerConf, error) {
@@ -23,6 +25,22 @@ func New() (ControllerConf, error) {
 		return ret, err
 	}
 
+	if ret.Ipaddr == "" {
+		wwlog.Printf(wwlog.WARN, "IP address is not configured in warewulfd.conf\n")
+	}
+	if ret.Netmask == "" {
+		wwlog.Printf(wwlog.WARN, "Netmask is not configured in warewulfd.conf\n")
+	}
+
+	if ret.Network == "" {
+		mask := net.IPMask(net.ParseIP(ret.Netmask).To4())
+		size, _ := mask.Size()
+
+		sub := ipsubnet.SubnetCalculator(ret.Ipaddr, size)
+
+		ret.Network = sub.GetNetworkPortion()
+	}
+
 	if ret.Warewulf.Port == 0 {
 		ret.Warewulf.Port = 9873
 	}
diff --git a/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/datastructure.go b/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/datastructure.go
index 55509bc4..ed15aa95 100644
--- a/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/datastructure.go
+++ b/internal/pkg/warewulfconf/datastructure.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ type ControllerConf struct {
 	Comment  string        `yaml:"comment"`
 	Ipaddr   string        `yaml:"ipaddr"`
 	Netmask  string        `yaml:"netmask"`
+	Network  string        `yaml:"network,omitempty"`
 	Fqdn     string        `yaml:"fqdn,omitempty"`
 	Warewulf *WarewulfConf `yaml:"warewulf"`
 	Dhcp     *DhcpConf     `yaml:"dhcp"`