With bridged networking you can share actual network device with KVM machines. This is required for servers with multiple network cards and gives you good performance. You can choose to put multiple segments into one bridged network or to divide it into different networks interconnected by routers.
Our Sample Setup
The following describes the networking used by our setup:
+------+ +-----+ LAN --> | eth0 | <==> | br0 | -> KVM VMs connected to LAN for SAN/NFS +------+ +-----+ 10.10.x.y/24 +------+ +-----+ Internet --> | eth1 | <==> | br1 | -> KVM VMs connected to the Inernet +------+ +-----+ 123.1.2.0/28
Where,
- All other clients can reached to all VMs via br1 which is connected to public interface. br1 is our default gateway.
- br0 is connected to private LAN to access other servers, services and storage devices such as SAN/NAS or NFS servers. br0 route is configured via route-br0 static networking configuration file.
Turn Off NetworkManager
The NetworkManager (GUI) tool can create problems with bridged based networking so disable it as follows, enter:
# chkconfig NetworkManager off
# chkconfig network on
# service NetworkManager stop
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network
Update file as follows:
NETWORKING=yes HOSTNAME=kvm42.nixcraft.net GATEWAY=br1
Save and close the file.
br0: Configure Bridging for eth0
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Update it as follows:
DEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=yes ETHTOOL_OPTS="autoneg off speed 100 duplex full" BRIDGE=br0 HWADDR=b8:ac:6f:65:31:e5
Save and close the file. Create /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0
Update it as follows (note options are case sensitive i.e. Bridge and bridge are two different options)
DEVICE=br0 TYPE=Bridge BOOTPROTO=static ONBOOT=yes IPADDR=10.10.21.70 NETMASK=255.255.255.192 DELAY=0
Save and close the file. Finally, create static routing file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-br0, enter :
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-br0
Edit it as follows:
10.0.0.0/8 via 10.10.21.122 dev br0
Save and close the file. Delete old /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0 (if exists):
# rm /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0
br1: Configure Bridging for eth1
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
Update it as follows:
DEVICE=eth1 ONBOOT=yes ETHTOOL_OPTS="autoneg off speed 100 duplex full" BRIDGE=br1 HWADDR=00:30:49:8c:48:ad
Please note that test server is set to 100Mbps full duplex. Save and close the file. Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br1, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br1
Define public IP address including gateway as follows:
DEVICE=br1 BOOTPROTO=static ONBOOT=yes IPADDR=123.1.2.3 NETMASK=255.255.255.248 GATEWAY=123.1.2.200 TYPE=Bridge DELAY=0
Save and close the file.
Restart Network Service
Type the following command:
# service network restart
Make sure everything is working fine:
# brctl show
Sample outputs:
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces br0 8000.0030488e31ac no eth0 br1 8000.0030488e31ad no eth1 virbr0 8000.000000000000 yes
Verify IPs and routing tables:
# ip addr show br0
# ip addr show br1
# ip route
# ping cyberciti.biz
# host google.com
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