Re: [Xen-users] xl and vifname

[Wei Liu <wei.liu2@citrix.com>]

On Wed, 2011-12-28 at 15:37 +0000, Andy Smith wrote:
> Hi Wei,
> 
> On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 03:25:57PM +0000, Wei Liu wrote:
> > Does xm serve your purpose -- specifying dom0 network interface of a
> > given name (rather then using vifX.X)?
> 
> Yes. We need to statically configure the vif names in order to have
> them be the same every time, and to know which virtual machine
> configuration they belong to. Not have them change every time the VM
> is restarted.
> 
> (Yes I am aware that it would be possible to translate the vifX.Y
> string into a domU name and go from there, but that adds a lot of
> complexity)
> 
> > If it can serve you purpose, can you verify which network backend you
> > are using by running following command:
> > 
> > $ ps aux | egrep '(qemu|net)'
> 
> This didn't match anything. These are PV domUs and there isn't a
> process in dom0 for each domU's netback. This is 4.0.1 on Debian
> stable.
> 

What's your dom0 kernel version? The newer kernel (2.6.32 3.X) should
have something like netback/0. However, historical kernel doesn't have
that.

Hmm... Maybe I misunderstood something here. I skimmed code from 2.6.18
to 3.0, it all hardcodes vif names. Maybe the toolstack alters interface
name after creation.

I will spend some time on this and get back to you later.

> > If you're running netback and you can use you preferred name for the
> > interface, then a similar fix for xl should be possible.
> 
> Something like:
> 
>     vif = [ "mac=00:16:3e:8e:ac:0a, ip=192.168.82.198, vifname=vm-85" ]
> 
> has worked for us for ~5 years through Xen 3.x and 4.x.
> 

Alright, got it.


Wei.

> Cheers,
> Andy
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-devel mailing list
> Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel