[libvirt] [PATCH v5] ESX: Add routines to interface driver

[Matthias Bolte]

2012/8/6 Ata Bohra <ata.husain at hotmail.com>:
> (Please ignore earlier messages, as for reason the messages got truncated)
>
> Thanks Matthias for the explanation, I was working on the project which
> required libvirt to control/set networking on a given ESX host. As ESXi is
> different from hosted hypervisors, we need to configure ESX interface (IP,
> routing, bridge etc), also it is an integral part of the host settings.

Okay, now I understand why you choose to make the interface driver
list HostVirtualNics. This gives you the possibility to configure this
part of an ESX server.

> But re-thinking the whole design in light of the explanation provided by
> you, libvirt interfaces are actually mapping physical interfaces to virtual
> network. Further, hostVirtualSwitch behaves like switch which defines ports
> where we can plug VM virtual ethernet cards. It seems likely that we still
> want to have ability of configuring ESXi virtual interfaces
> (hostVirtualNics) so not sure if listing physical Nics is completly right to
> get an 100% operational ESX host.

This should be possible, but as of the network driver. Laine mentioned
that the IP element of a libvirt network config could be used for that
purpose. This idea looks promising, but needs to be investigated in
detail first. I might be able to spent some time on this next weekend.

Regards,
Matthias

> Michal has already reviewed the code and I would do the same if this design
> is one that maps to libvirt terminology the most. Though my design is not
> accpeted, but it was an amazing learning experience. Thanks for everyones
> input that came along the way.
>
> Regards,
> Ata
>
>
>> Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2012 22:45:26 +0200
>> Subject: Re: [libvirt] [PATCH v5] ESX: Add routines to interface driver
>> From: matthias.bolte at googlemail.com
>> To: ata.husain at hotmail.com
>> CC: libvir-list at redhat.com
>>
>> 2012/8/5 Matthias Bolte <matthias.bolte at googlemail.com>:
>> > 2012/8/2 Ata E Husain Bohra <ata.husain at hotmail.com>:
>> >> Add following routines to esx_interface_driver:
>> >> esxNumOfInterfaces,
>> >> esxNumOfDefinedInterfaces,
>> >> esxListInterfaces,
>> >> esxListDefinedInterfaces,
>> >> esxInterfaceLookupByMACString,
>> >> esxInterfaceGetXMLDesc,
>> >> esxInterfaceUndefine,
>> >> esxInterfaceCreate,
>> >> esxInterfaceDestroy
>> >>
>> >> Signed-off-by: Ata E Husain Bohra <ata.husain at hotmail.com>
>> >
>> > Okay, I finally had time to take a detailed look at the interface
>> > driver and the related network driver and your proposed implementation
>> > for the interface driver.
>> >
>> > I think listing HostVirtualNics in the interface driver is not the
>> > correct mapping between vSphere API and libvirt. Also listing
>> > HostVirtualNics as bridges is not correct because a HostVirtualNic is
>> > not a bridge. A HostVirtualSwitch can be seen as a kind of bridge, but
>> > a HostVirtualSwitch is more like a virtual network in libvirt terms.
>> >
>> > In terms of libvirt the interface driver is about physical NICs that
>> > can be used to connect a libvirt virtual network to the physical
>> > network. Therefore, the interface driver should just list the
>> > PhysicalNics, but not the HostVirtualNics. I think there is currently
>> > no place in the libvirt API to map the HostVirtualNics to. Also I
>> > don't think that it is important to make the HostVirtualNics available
>> > via libvirt API. I might be wrong here, but mapping them via libvirt
>> > interface driver is still wrong in my opinion.
>> >
>> > Regarding the network driver, I think a libvirt virtual network is
>> > best represented by a HostVirtualSwitch and the HostPortGroups are
>> > mapped to the portgroups of a libvirt virtual switch.
>> >
>> > I'm sorry that I let you wait for quite a while now until I came to
>> > this understanding that is contrary to your proposed interface driver.
>>
>> I missed to mention that I proposed an implementation for the
>> interface and network drivers according to the described mapping:
>>
>> https://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2012-August/msg00307.html
>> https://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2012-August/msg00308.html
>>
>> --
>> Matthias Bolte
>> http://photron.blogspot.com
>
> -- libvir-list mailing list libvir-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvir-list



-- 
Matthias Bolte
http://photron.blogspot.com