diff --git a/xCAT/postscripts/configeth b/xCAT/postscripts/configeth
index 6644600e7..47a2c6714 100755
--- a/xCAT/postscripts/configeth
+++ b/xCAT/postscripts/configeth
@@ -702,6 +702,15 @@ elif [ "$1" = "-s" ];then
         hostname $NODE
         echo $NODE > /etc/HOSTNAME
     else
+        # Extract the first numeric part of the VERSION_ID, ignoring any non-numeric characters.
+        os_major_version=`cat /etc/os* | grep VERSION_ID | cut -d '=' -f2 | sed s/\"//g | cut -d "." -f1`
+
+        if [[ -z "${os_major_version}" ]] ; then
+          logger -t xcat -p local4.err "configeth: Could not determine the OS version, defaulting to the RHEL 7 behavior"
+          log_warn "configeth on $NODE: Could not determine the OS version, defaulting to the RHEL 7 behavior"
+          os_major_version=7
+        fi 
+    
         #write ifcfg-* file for redhat
         con_name="xcat-"${str_inst_nic}
         str_inst_prefix=$(v4mask2prefix ${str_inst_mask})
@@ -715,7 +724,7 @@ elif [ "$1" = "-s" ];then
                 tmp_con_name=${str_inst_nic}"-tmp"
                 nmcli con modify $con_name connection.id $tmp_con_name
             fi
-            nmcli con add type ethernet con-name $con_name ifname ${str_inst_nic} ipv4.method manual ipv4.addresses  ${str_inst_ip}/${str_inst_prefix} connection.autoconnect-priority 9
+            nmcli con add type ethernet con-name $con_name ifname ${str_inst_nic} ipv4.method manual ipv4.addresses  ${str_inst_ip}/${str_inst_prefix} connection.autoconnect-priority 9 gw4 ${str_inst_gateway}
             str_conf_file_1="/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-xcat-${str_inst_nic}-1"
             if [ -f $str_conf_file_1 ]; then
                 grep $con_name $str_conf_file_1 >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
@@ -732,6 +741,11 @@ elif [ "$1" = "-s" ];then
             echo "ONBOOT=yes" >> $str_conf_file
             echo "NAME=${con_name}" >> $str_conf_file
             echo "HWADDR=${str_inst_mac}" >> $str_conf_file
+
+            # Add GATEWAY to $str_conf_file only if the OS version is above RHEL 7.x.
+            if (( $os_major_version > 7 )) ; then
+              echo "GATEWAY=${str_inst_gateway}" >> $str_conf_file
+            fi
         fi
         if [ $networkmanager_active -eq 2 ]; then
             echo "AUTOCONNECT_PRIORITY=9" >> $str_conf_file
@@ -748,13 +762,17 @@ elif [ "$1" = "-s" ];then
                 echo "MTU=${str_inst_mtu}" >> $str_conf_file
 	        fi
         fi
-        if [ -n "$str_inst_gateway" ];then
-            grep -i "GATEWAY" /etc/sysconfig/network
-            if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
-                sed -i "s/.*GATEWAY.*/GATEWAY=${str_inst_gateway}/i" /etc/sysconfig/network
-            else
-                echo "GATEWAY=${str_inst_gateway}" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
-            fi
+
+        # Add GATEWAY to the network file only if the OS version is RHEL 7.x or below.
+        if (( $os_major_version < 8 )) ; then
+          if [ -n "$str_inst_gateway" ];then
+              grep -i "GATEWAY" /etc/sysconfig/network
+              if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
+                  sed -i "s/.*GATEWAY.*/GATEWAY=${str_inst_gateway}/i" /etc/sysconfig/network
+              else
+                  echo "GATEWAY=${str_inst_gateway}" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
+              fi
+          fi
         fi
 	    #add extra params
         i=0