[libvirt] [PATCH] Basic support for VDE networking

[Justin Clift]

On 12/01/2011, at 11:29 PM, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> 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

That's potentially interesting from the OSX point of view as well.

The VDE website (wiki) has conflicting info on it, but mentions in the
notes for its System Requirements that it works on OSX.