[evb] RE: [PATCH][RFC] net/bridge: add basic VEPA support

Paul Congdon (UC Davis) ptcongdon at ucdavis.edu
Fri Aug 7 14:06:58 PDT 2009


Yaron,


The interface multiplexing can be achieved using macvlan driver or using an SR-IOV capable NIC (the preferred option), macvlan may need to be extended to support VEPA multicast handling, this looks like a rather simple task 

Agreed that the hardware solution is preferred so the macvlan implementation doesn’t really matter.  If we are talking SR-IOV, then it is direct mapped, regardless of whether there is a VEB or VEPA in the hardware below, so you are bypassing the bridge software code also.  

I disagree that adding the multicast handling is simple – while not conceptually hard, it will basically require you to put an address table into the macvlan implementation – if you have that, then why not have just used the one already in the bridge code.  If you hook a VEPA up to a non-hairpin mode external bridge, you get the macvlan capability as well.

It also seems to me like the special macvlan interfaces for KVM don’t apply to XEN or a non-virtualized environment?  Or more has to be written to make that work?  If it is in the bridge code, you get all of this re-use.

 

 

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