xref: /netbsd/share/man/man4/xvif.4 (revision 6550d01e)
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30.Dd January 8, 2011
31.Dt XVIF 4 xen
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm xvif
35.Nd Xen backend paravirtualized network interface
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Cd pseudo-device xvif
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39The
40.Nm
41interface forms the backend part of the paravirtualized drivers
42used by
43.Tn Xen
44domains to offer network connectivity.
45.Pp
46When the guest domain is
47.Nx ,
48the endpoint of the
49.Nm
50interface is a
51.Xr xennet 4
52interface.
53In the XenStore,
54.Nm xvif
55and
56.Nm xennet
57are identified by
58.Dq vif
59(virtual interface)
60entries.
61.Pp
62All
63.Nm
64interfaces follow the
65.Dq xvifX.Y
66naming convention, where
67.Sq X
68represents the guest domain identifier, and
69.Sq Y
70an arbitrary identifier; most of the time, it is the
71frontend interface identifier, e.g.
72.Dq xennetY .
73.Pp
74For convenience, the MAC address of an
75.Nm
76interface is chosen by incrementing the third byte of the
77MAC address of the frontend device.
78.Pp
79Conceptually, frontends and backends drivers are
80similar to two Ethernet cards connected via a crossover cable.
81.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
82.Bl -diag
83.It "xvif%d.%d: can't read %s/mac: %d"
84The MAC address for this interface could not be read from XenStore.
85.It "xvif%d.%d: %s is not a valid mac address"
86The MAC address specified in the configuration file of the newly
87created guest domain is invalid.
88.It "xvif%d.%d: Ethernet address %s"
89MAC address of the
90.Nm
91interface.
92.El
93.Sh SEE ALSO
94.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
95.Xr xennet 4 ,
96.Xr ifconfig 8
97.Sh HISTORY
98The
99.Nm
100driver first appeared in
101.Nx 4.0 .
102.Sh AUTHORS
103.An -nosplit
104The
105.Nm
106driver was written by
107.An Manuel Bouyer Aq bouyer@NetBSD.org .
108