Awesome

vdeplug4

VDE: Virtual Distributed Ethernet. Plug your VM directly to the cloud.

Vdeplug4 is a new perspective on virtual networking.

hello vxvde world

Install vdeplug4:

 $ mkdir build
 $ cd build
 $ cmake ..
 $ make
 $ sudo make install

Start several VM on different hosts on the same LAN (IP ttl must be 1). (VM virtual controllers must have different MAC addresses).

e.g. kvm:

 kvm .... -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:11:22:11 -net vde,sock=vxvde://
 kvm .... -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:11:22:22 -net vde,sock=vxvde://
 kvm .... -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:11:22:33 -net vde,sock=vxvde://
 kvm .... -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:11:22:44 -net vde,sock=vxvde://
 kvm .... -net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:11:22:55 -net vde,sock=vxvde://

All the VM will be automagically on the same Virtual LAN. (similarly, it is possible to add virtualbox, qemu-system-* and user-mode-linux VMs).

It is possible to connect the virtual newtork to a tuntap interface and manage in this way the routing towards real networks (maybe the Internet). The command (to run on any host on the LAN) is:

$ sudo vde_plug vxvde:// tap://mytap

The tap can be defined on a remote host:

$ vde_plug vxvde:// = ssh fqdn.of.remote.host,org vde_plug tap://

what is vdeplug4

This software package includes a modular library (libvdeplug) and some utility tools (vde_plug and dpipe)

The new libvdeplug library is backwards compatible with the previous versions (so it is already supported by qemu, kvm, virtualbox, user-mode-linux, view-os, lwipv6, picotcp and all the other VM or virtual stacks supporting vde2).

The new library supports plug-ins so it is open to new developments in vrtual networking.

Several plug-ins are provided as standard extensions of the library (batteries included):

• vde: connect to legacy vde_switch (provided by vde2)
• ptp: peer to peer connection between two VM
• tap: connect a VM or a virtual network to
• vxlan: connect vde switches or other vde networks to vxlan
• vxvde: this plug-in implements distributed virtual switches
• udp: udp tunnelling

The address of a virtual network is defined by a Virtual Network Locator (VNL), a string whose syntax is similar to web URLs.

examples:

vxvde://239.1.2.3/ttl=2
tap://mytap
vde:///tmp/myswitch
myplugin://my.syntax/myarg=myvalue

This latter example will work provided there is a dynamic library named libvdeplug_myplugin.so available and accepting the syntax of the parameters after '//'

Other modules can be added. Vdeplug4 includes the header file and a support library to implement further plugins.

Credits:

Mattia Biondi largely contibuted to the conversion from autotools to cmake. (2019)