Re: Bridging eth0/br0 & NetworkManager - can they coexist?
On Friday 29 June 2012 10:02:57 Steve Dowe wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have absolutely no doubt that someone reading this list knows more
> than I do on this.. :)
>
> The issue I'm having, using wheezy, is that if I set up a bridged
> ethernet interface for eth0 (br0), as per instructions on the Debian
> wiki etc, NetworkManager can no longer manage my wired ethernet connection.
The answer is to not use N-M. I stopped using it years ago after finding it
would get in my way, undoing changes I made manually (I may even have
uninstalled it because it *insisted* on running). Besides, I don't need yet
another program running whose sole purpose is to slurp CPU cycles, take up
screen real estate and make me click-click-click...click-click-click-click to
find what 'ip addr' would tell me. And if you are running a bunch of VMs,
you've moved beyond the utility of N-M; you do not want it controlling your
network.
You're doing pretty much what I do. I have four bridges (but only 3 NICs: one
bridge goes nowhere) for testing my firewalls (RED/GREEN/PURPLE/ORANGE). I can
have a number of firewalls running in KVMs, attached to any combination of
four bridges. I can direct Squeeze's default route to any of them or to the
bridge direct to my perimeter F/W.
The bridge device (e.g. br0) is a network interface. The NIC is a network
interface. The tap device (e.g. tap0) appears as a network interface to the
VM. A bridge device doesn't need a real NIC to operate. It's perfectly happy
to bridge zero or more taps to itself. The host doesn't need to actively use a
brX device (with IP address, et al) for it to bridge VMs together. Kernel-
wise, a bridge device is very similar to a run-of-the-mill 8-port ethernet
switch: it bridges whatever is connected to it. Or it sits idle when it has no
member devices other than itself.
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