[libvirt] [PATCH] Basic support for VDE networking

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 04:12:57PM +0100, Renzo Davoli wrote:
> I have seen several messages asking for VDE networking support.
> There is an item also in your todo web page.
> http://libvirt.org/todo.html
> I have developed a patch to provide a basic support for VDE.
> It defines and manages the syntax:
> 
> <domain ....>
>  <device>
>   <interface type='vde'>
>    ...
>    <switch path='/tmp/vde.ctl'/>
>   </interface>
>  </device>
> </domain>
> 
> the switch tag can be omitted: vde uses the default switch.
> I have tested the qemu/kvm support.
> user-mode linux support is included but not tested yet.
> libvirt vde support for virtualbox has not been coded yet (virtualbox
> itself supports vde).

I was actually thinking that VDE should be supported in a slightly
different, more integrated manner. libvirt has a set of APIs for
'virtual networking'.  When libvirt runs privileged, we make use
of a isolated bridge device + ip forwarding/NAT for this. My plan
was that when running unprivileged, we'd make use of VDE for the
implementation instead of a bridge.

eg, so you'd be able to create/delete/manage VDE daemon instances
using the 'virsh net-XXX' command set. The guest domains would be
connected to VDE using the existing  <interface type='network'>
syntax, and not expose any 'vde' syntax in the guest XML directly.
I think letting apps manage VDE daemon instances via the libvirt
APi would make this functionality much more friendly & useful

Daniel