I have a VPS set up with Ubuntu 12.04 on it and am having trouble getting a second IP set up as a virtual interface. I've configured the interface as you can see from my /etc/networking/interfaces file here:

# The loopback network interface

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback



# Interfaces brought up durring boot

auto eth0 eth0:0 eth0:1



# eth0 - Public IP, WAN access

iface eth0 inet static

    address 72.14.191.251

    netmask 255.255.255.0

    gateway 72.14.191.1



# eth0:0 - Public IP, WAN access

iface eth0:0 inet static

    address 173.255.199.148

    netmask 255.255.255.0

    gateway 173.255.199.1



# eth0:1 - Private IP, LAN access

iface eth0:1 inet static

    address 192.168.128.46

    netmask 255.255.128.0

The interface in question is eth0:0 with the IP of 173.255.199.148, no connection can be made to that IP. I can't even ping it. If I run ifconfig, all interfaces show as up:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f2:3c:91:ae:a0:8b  

          inet addr:72.14.191.251  Bcast:72.14.191.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: 2600:3c00::f03c:91ff:feae:a08b/64 Scope:Global

          inet6 addr: fe80::f03c:91ff:feae:a08b/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:3664 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:2908 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:330670 (330.6 KB)  TX bytes:970665 (970.6 KB)

          Interrupt:44 



eth0:0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f2:3c:91:ae:a0:8b  

          inet addr:173.255.199.148  Bcast:173.255.199.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          Interrupt:44 



eth0:1    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f2:3c:91:ae:a0:8b  

          inet addr:192.168.128.46  Bcast:192.168.255.255  Mask:255.255.128.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          Interrupt:44 



lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:135 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:135 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:141948 (141.9 KB)  TX bytes:141948 (141.9 KB)

Trying to bring the interface down or up doesn't help either:

chris@Optimus:~$ sudo ifdown eth0:0

ifdown: interface eth0:0 not configured

chris@Optimus:~$ sudo ifup eth0:0

RTNETLINK answers: File exists

Failed to bring up eth0:0.

Nor does restarting networking:

chris@Optimus:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

 * Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces

 * Reconfiguring network interfaces...                                                                                                                                                                                                         resolvconf: Error: /etc/resolv.conf isn't a symlink, not doing anything.

resolvconf: Error: /etc/resolv.conf isn't a symlink, not doing anything.

resolvconf: Error: /etc/resolv.conf isn't a symlink, not doing anything.

ssh stop/waiting

ssh start/running, process 4289

RTNETLINK answers: File exists

Failed to bring up eth0:0.

resolvconf: Error: /etc/resolv.conf isn't a symlink, not doing anything.

ssh stop/waiting

ssh start/running, process 4361

Even a complete system reboot did nothing. What is the problem here? What am I missing?