[PATCH] Add a check attribute on the mac address element

[Michal Privoznik]

On 7/13/20 11:44 AM, Bastien Orivel wrote:
> This is only used in the ESX driver where, when set to "no", it will
> ignore all the checks libvirt does about the origin of the MAC address
> (whether or not it's in a VMWare OUI) and forward the original one to
> the ESX server telling it not to check it either.
> 
> This allows keeping a deterministic MAC address which can be useful for
> licensed software which might dislike changes.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Bastien Orivel <bastien.orivel at diateam.net>
> ---
>   NEWS.rst                                      |  6 ++++
>   docs/drvesx.html.in                           |  5 ++++
>   docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng                 |  3 ++
>   src/conf/domain_conf.c                        | 18 +++++++++++-
>   src/conf/domain_conf.h                        |  1 +
>   src/vmx/vmx.c                                 |  9 +++++-
>   .../network-interface-mac-check.xml           | 29 +++++++++++++++++++
>   tests/genericxml2xmltest.c                    |  2 ++
>   8 files changed, 71 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 tests/genericxml2xmlindata/network-interface-mac-check.xml
> 
> diff --git a/NEWS.rst b/NEWS.rst
> index 1928220854..ac4de4360d 100644
> --- a/NEWS.rst
> +++ b/NEWS.rst
> @@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ v6.6.0 (unreleased)
>       Libvirt allows configuring ACPI Heterogeneous Memory Attribute Table to
>       hint software running inside the guest on optimization.
>   
> +  * esx: Add a ``check`` attribute for mac addresses.
> +
> +    This attribute allows (when set to ``no``) ignoring VMWare checks of the
> +    MAC addresses that would generate a new one if they were in its OUI
> +    (00:0c:29).
> +
>   * **Improvements**
>   


While you get bonus points for remembering to document this change, it 
should go into a separate patch, because keeping it in a single one 
usually leads to conflicts on backports.

But anyway, looking at virVMXFormatEthernet() - why don't we set all 
MACs 'static'? Alternatively, we can use @mac_generated member to 
determine whether the MAC address was provided by user or automagically 
generated (and use static/generated addressType accrodingly)?

I mean, this attribute you are adding (the code is correct though) 
should be last resort. Can you please elaborate more?

Michal