bhyve: vde2/openvswitch

[Julian Elischer]

On 6/20/14, 8:51 AM, Cory Smelosky wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> Is there any current support for vde2 aside from using 
> vde2_plug2tap? (Does that even work?  I believe vde2 likes to open 
> the tap interface exclusively.  I need to bring up a bhyve test 
> environment to check fully.)
>
> How exactly does the bhyve network stack work through bridging? I'm 
> imaging it's tying in to bridging APIs?
>
> I'm assuming bhyve-to-bhyve network communication is also possible?
>
> I can't imagine it'd be too hard to implement vde2 support for 
> networking...it'd give me more control over my VMs and give easier 
> integration with SIMH VMs.
>
> OpenVSwitch I know less about...but I'm aware it is another virtual 
> switch and it works on FreeBSD...not sure if it has a kernel module 
> or if it's in userspace.  With vde2 I know for sure it can be 
> attached to a tap interface and therefore a bridge.
>
> A virtual switch for bhyve would be a useful feature if there aren't 
> any plans for one.  Get up there and have it in base. ;)
>
> Unrelated: any plans for a special bhyve-to-bhyve communication 
> bus?  Not too useful of a feature...I can't think of any use for it 
> off-hand aside from dedicating a VM to administrating VMs without 
> exposing much to the host beyond configurations.
>
I believe it should be possible to plumb up arbitrary vm to vm network 
topologies using several different schemes, such as running different 
vms in different vimage jails, and using netgraph as a linkage medium, 
but I haven't tried them.