RHEL 6 Virtualization - Bridged Interface

With version 6, Red Hat has finally fixed the long standing problem of not being able to use the GUI to configure a Virtual Machine shared connection. Lets first review the types of VM network connections:

* RH=y  CX=y  VW=y Internal
* RH=y  CX=y  VW=y Dedicated or Slaved NIC
* RH=y  CX=y  VW=y Routed or VLAN'd
* RH=y  CX=y  VM=y Shared or Bridged
* RH=y  CX=n  VW=n Network Address Translation (NAT)
(Bold entries are the "default" config.)

An internal connection does not route traffic off the host system. A dedicated (also called slaved) connection, requires a separate NIC for each VM, which is very inefficient. A connection that is routed or VLAN'd requires the network be aware of the the specialized configuration. A shared or bridged connection (what we're after) extends the real world subnets in to the virtual machines. The last type, NAT, allows the VM's to communicate out, but does not permit inbound request, thus rendering it useless to servers.

Unfortunately, Red Hat uses NAT, by default, and their virtualization technology is principally used for server consolidation. As if this is a good idea. To make matters worse, their documentation still suggests manually configuring a shared connection, and does not explain that once you're done, you won't be able to see the connection in the GUI.

Here's how to do it right:

From virt-manager, connect to the host, click Edit, and select Host Details. On the Network Interfaces tab, click the plus sign (+) at the lower left. In the pop-up, select "Bridge" and Forward. Assign a name-- I recommend br followed by the eth number of the card you are sharing. In other words, if you are sharing eth1, name it br1.

On the same screen, set the start mode to "onboot", check "Activate now", and check the target NIC that you want the VMs to access. Take a deep breath, hold it, and click Finish. Scary things will happen, but after about a minute, the window should respond.

Notice that the eth item has disappeared from th elist and been replaced by the newly defined bridge. Now click the Virtual Networks tab, and notice nothing has changed. Why doesn't the new connection appear in the list? More evidence that Red Hat's interface is the least intuitive of all the vendors. This tab is a list of virtual networks, and a bridged connection is an extension of the physical network. (Yeah, while technically correct, it doesn't make sense to me either.)

When provisioning VMs, make sure to select expand Advanced options and choose the br device.

*** NOTE ***
An excellent discussion of the underlying technology is available on Dale Bewley's blog. You'll need this for kickstarting hosts.