NAME
xvif —
Xen backend paravirtualized
network interface
SYNOPSIS
pseudo-device xvif
DESCRIPTION
The
xvif interface forms the backend part of the
paravirtualized drivers used by Xen domains to offer network connectivity.
When the guest domain is
NetBSD, the endpoint of the
xvif interface is a
xennet(4) interface. In the
XenStore,
xvif and
xennet are identified
by “vif” (virtual interface) entries.
All
xvif interfaces follow the “xvifXiY” naming
convention, where ‘X’ represents the guest domain identifier, and
‘Y’ an arbitrary identifier; most of the time, it is the frontend
interface identifier, e.g. “xennetY”.
For convenience, the MAC address of an
xvif interface is
chosen by incrementing the third byte of the MAC address of the frontend
device.
Conceptually, frontends and backends drivers are similar to two Ethernet cards
connected via a crossover cable.
DIAGNOSTICS
- xvif%di%d: can't read %s/mac:
%d
- The MAC address for this interface could not be read from
XenStore.
- xvif%di%d: %s is not a valid mac
address
- The MAC address specified in the configuration file of the
newly created guest domain is invalid.
- xvif%di%d: Ethernet address %s
- MAC address of the xvif interface.
SEE ALSO
ifmedia(4),
xennet(4),
ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The
xvif driver first appeared in
NetBSD
4.0.
AUTHORS
The
xvif driver was written by
Manuel
Bouyer
<
bouyer@NetBSD.org>.