[libvirt] VMware ESX: Allow ethernet address type 'vpx'

[Matthias Bolte]

2009/8/10 Itamar Heim <iheim at redhat.com>:
>> From: libvir-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:libvir-list-
>> bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Matthias Bolte
>
>>
>> The VMX entry ethernet0.addressType may be set to 'vpx' beside
>> 'static' and 'generated'. 'vpx' indicates that the MAC address was
>> generated by a vCenter.
>>
>> The attached patch adds 'vpx' to the valid values for
>> ethernet0.addressType.
>>
>> Matthias
> [IH] can you please explain the interaction (if any) between the ESX driver
> and
> vCenter which this patch implies may be working with same ESX servers?
>
> Thanks,
>    Itamar

The ESX driver parses the VMX file of a virtual machine to gather the
information needed for the dump XML function. The VMX entry
ethernet0.addressType maybe set to vpx if the generated MAC address
was generated by a vCenter and not by the ESX host itself. No direct
interaction between the ESX driver and a vCenter happens in this case.

But there is direct interaction between the ESX driver and a vCenter
if you order the ESX driver to migrate a virtual machine from ESX host
A to ESX host B.

An ESX host itself is not capable of initiating a migration to another
ESX host. Both hosts must be attached to the same vCenter and the
vCenter initiates and controls the migration. So the ESX driver needs
to know the vCenter for a ESX host in order to do a migration.
Therefore the ESX driver URI format contains an vcenter query
parameter.

More detailed documentation in HTML form will be added soon.

Matthias