Edward Haas

With a VM attached to multiple networks, it may become difficult and sometimes impossible for its workload to recognize which interface is connected to which network. In this presentation, we will cover various vNIC to network mapping options, their advantages and limitations.

The traditional interface naming scheme (eth0, eth1) does not play well when multiple network devices are present in a system. The names are dependent on the device detection order, which makes them unreliable over reboots.

Modern OS have started using predictable naming schemes for some time now, making the traditional naming scheme a thing of the past.

KubeVirt [1] provides several options that allow to reliably map vNICs to networks in guests: - Based on MAC address. - Based on the PCI address. - Based on the ACPI index. - Based on the device-role-tagging [2].

While we will use KubeVirt as an example, note that these methods are applicable to other platforms too.

Prior familiarity with virtualization and basics of networking are recommended. The audience will walk out knowing how to use the various network mapping methods and understand their pros and cons.

[1] http://kubevirt.io/ [2] https://kubevirt.io/user-guide/virtualmachines/startupscripts/#device-role-tagging

NMState is a new declarative API that simplifies Linux network management.

Various services built on top of Linux need to manage the network configuration. Each service models network entities differently and uses various APIs to change the network state, multiplying the required work. NMState centralizes the challenges by providing a unified declarative representation of the Linux network state and allowing to modify it using the same schema. NMState also provides Ansible network modules to manage Linux systems, conforming to the same uniform schema used to control network appliances. The talk will introduce NMState, its core capabilities, current users and roadmap, including plans for Kubevirt, oVirt, Openshift and Openstack support. Afterwards, the audience will understand the benefits of using NMState to centralize collaboration on Linux network management.