How to enable an Ethernet interface at boot on CentOS 8?

I have a VM which is connected to a network with DHCP etc.

Whenever I boot the VM the virtual Ethernet connection is DOWN. I need to log in by console and run dhclient eth0 to enable it. Every time. I wish to enable eth0 upon boot.

This is /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:

TYPE=Ethernet
PROXY_METHOD=none
BROWSER_ONLY=no
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
DEFROUTE=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=yes
IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=no
IPV6_DEFROUTE=yes
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6_ADDR_GEN_MODE=stable-privacy
NAME=eth0
UUID=11111111-2222-3333-4444-5555555555555555
DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
HOTPLUG=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=no
DHCPV6C=yes
IPV6_PRIVACY=no
USERCTL=no
GATEWAY=10.0.0.1
DNS1=9.9.9.9
DNS2=1.1.1.1

I thought that ONBOOT=yes was the important bit here but it is ignored completely. Who reads this file? Perhaps that’s the culprit.

The HOTPLUG=yes I only added in the hope that this would help (perhaps interface coming up late…) but it does not.

I set NM_CONTROLLED=no because I have no NetworkManager service (server, no user-management allowed or needed).

My question is: What is wrong with my config file or what setting
would help?