FLAT connectivity problems - virl.ini changes not taking effect

• Unable to  connect VIRL to lab network using FLAT interfaces. Followed the step-by-step user guides and the issue is, the changes that we make to VIRL.INI do not take effect despite reboots.
•  The corresponding VIRL IOSv router interface is still auto-assigned a static 172.16.1.x address. If we try to change its configuration to "ip address dhcp", it's dynamically assigned a 172.16.1.x address. Tried re-assigning both FLAT and FLAT1. An IOSv router interface is configured to access the FLAT Interface.

## First flat connection (AKA flat)　 

## Physical Port and virtual bridge for L2 bridge

## Default

l2_port: eth1

## l2 network

## l2_network format is address/cidr format x.x.x.x/x

## Default

l2_network: 10.111.112.0/23

l2_mask: 255.255.254.0

## If default access method is via openvpn last octet should be .254

l2_network_gateway: 10.111.112.1

## l2 bridge first and last address for dhcp allocation

## Default

l2_start_address: 10.111.112.111

l2_end_address: 10.111.112.115

## address on the L2 bridge port for debugging?

## Default is

l2_address: 10.111.112.116/23

## Nameservers for DHCP on flat network (aka flat)

## Substitute with DNS server addresses that are reachable

## Google's public DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

##

## Don't set them to identical addresses

##

## Defaults are

first_flat_nameserver: 8.8.8.8

second_flat_nameserver: 8.8.4.4

## Second flat connection (AKA flat1)　 

## Physical Port and virtual bridge for L2 bridge

l2_port2_enabled: True

## Default is enabled

l2_port2: eth2

## l2 network (AKA flat1)

## l2_network format is address/cidr format x.x.x.x/x

l2_network2: 10.111.114.0/23

l2_mask2: 255.255.254.0

l2_network_gateway2: 10.111.114.1

## l2 bridge first and last address for dhcp allocation

l2_start_address2: 10.111.114.111

l2_end_address2: 10.111.114.115

## address on the second L2 bridge port for debugging?

## Default is

l2_address2: 10.111.114.116/23

## Nameservers for DHCP on second flat network (aka flat1)

## Substitute with DNS server addresses that are reachable

## Google's public DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

##

## Don't set them to identical addresses

##

## Defaults are

first_flat2_nameserver: 8.8.8.8

second_flat2_nameserver: 8.8.4.4

 References:

Configuring_External_Connectivity_with_Cisco_VIRL-v1.pdf - 30508 - The Cisco Learning Network

One of the things noticed about VIRL is that you should never change anything manually through the /etc/virl.ini or /etc/networking/interface files.  All changes should be made through the UWM page (accessed by the ip address given to eth0) and applied through there.  Steps are pretty straight forward.  Log in as uwmadmin, go to "VIRL server", then to "System configuration", "Networks" and change the settings to the FLAT network that you want.  WARNING!!!: changing any of these settings will trigger a sudo vinstall rehost which can take 30mins to an hour to complete! Honestly unless you really want to change them, you are better of finding another solution like change your ip range of your network you want to connect to (if it is only a small test network).