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An ESX server has one or more PhysicalNics that represent the actual
hardware NICs. Those can be listed via the interface driver.
A libvirt virtual network is mapped to a HostVirtualSwitch. On the
physical side a HostVirtualSwitch can be connected to PhysicalNics.
On the virtual side a HostVirtualSwitch has HostPortGroups that are
mapped to libvirt virtual network's portgroups. Typically there is
HostPortGroups named 'VM Network' that is used to connect virtual
machines to a HostVirtualSwitch. A second HostPortGroup typically
named 'Management Network' is used to connect the hypervisor itself
to the HostVirtualSwitch. This one is not mapped to a libvirt virtual
network's portgroup. There can be more HostPortGroups than those
typical two on a HostVirtualSwitch.
+---------------+-------------------+
...---| | | +-------------+
| HostPortGroup | |---| PhysicalNic |
| VM Network | | | vmnic0 |
...---| | | +-------------+
+---------------+ HostVirtualSwitch |
| vSwitch0 |
+---------------+ |
| HostPortGroup | |
...---| Management | |
| Network | |
+---------------+-------------------+
The virtual counterparts of the PhysicalNic is the HostVirtualNic for
the hypervisor and the VirtualEthernetCard for the virtual machines
that are grouped into HostPortGroups.
+---------------------+ +---------------+---...
| VirtualEthernetCard |---| |
+---------------------+ | HostPortGroup |
+---------------------+ | VM Network |
| VirtualEthernetCard |---| |
+---------------------+ +---------------+
|
+---------------+
+---------------------+ | HostPortGroup |
| HostVirtualNic |---| Management |
+---------------------+ | Network |
+---------------+---...
The currently implemented network driver can list, define and undefine
HostVirtualSwitches including HostPortGroups for virtual machines.
Existing HostVirtualSwitches cannot be edited yet. This will be added
in a followup patch.
LibVirt : simple API for virtualization
Libvirt is a C toolkit to interact with the virtualization capabilities
of recent versions of Linux (and other OSes). It is free software
available under the GNU Lesser General Public License. Virtualization of
the Linux Operating System means the ability to run multiple instances of
Operating Systems concurrently on a single hardware system where the basic
resources are driven by a Linux instance. The library aim at providing
long term stable C API initially for the Xen paravirtualization but
should be able to integrate other virtualization mechanisms if needed.
Daniel Veillard <veillard@redhat.com>