[libvirt-users] Convincing libvirt to create a bridge device?

[Laine Stump]

On 03/06/2016 03:21 PM, Lars Kellogg-Stedman wrote:
> I was hoping that I could delegate creation of bridge devices to
> libvirt for address-less bridges, in order to not have to deal with
> the various ways distributions handle persistent network
> configuration, but while this creates a libvirt network...
>
>    <network>
>      <name>provision</name>
>      <forward mode='bridge'/>
>      <bridge name='brprov'/>
>    </network>
>
> ...it doesn't actually create the bridge.  Configuring the bridge
> using either <forward mode="route"/> or <forward mode="nat"/> *will*
> create the bridge device, but both of these require assigning an
> address to the bridge which means I have to suddenly worry about
> IPAM and conflicts with local networks.

Remove the <forward mode='bridge'/> line from your config above and it 
should do what you want - libvirt will create the bridge, but won't 
assign any IP address to it (nor will it attach it to any physical device).