Attaching a Guest Directly to a Virtualization Host Network Interface with a macvtap Driver

Internal

• Linux Virtualization Networking Concepts
• Linux Virtualization Operations

Method 1

The simplest method is to leave the network interface unconfigured on the virtualization host and to assign it to the guest in configuration with virsh edit as follows:

...
<interface type='direct'>
    <source dev='eth0' mode='private'/>
</interface>
...

Note that after saving it, libvirt will update the stored configuration as follows:

...
<interface type='direct'>
    <mac address='52:54:00:02:72:ed'/>
    <source dev='em2' mode='private'/>
    <model type='rtl8139'/>
    <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/>
</interface>
...

Note that the MAC address declared in the configuration is different from the MAC address declared by ip addr on the virtualization host.