On Sat, Mar 17, 2007 at 12:55:59AM +0800, Peter Memishian wrote: > > > In the case of Xen, for example, vnics are created by tools that run > > when a domain is created (which includes an admin asking for a domain > > to created but also when a domain migrates to a particular physical > > machine). Here I think that it's clear that having "the system" > > allocate the link names is the only viable option. > > I'm not sure I understand this. Are these VNIC names later exposed into > the administrative model? If so, why wouldn't the admin want some control > over them (e.g., so they can be memorable)?
The links so created are used by a driver component that runs in dom0. The administrator takes no direct action with the created links - that is also part of the tools. (In short, the tools write the name of the link into a small database. The database is monitored by some code that notices the creation of new domains. When it sees a new domain it looks for the link name(s) of the nic(s) assigned to the domain and causes another driver to open them. This last driver relays packets to/from the nic(s) from/to the guest domain.) See http://www.dme.org/solaris/doc/xen/dom0-networking.txt for some more background. dme.
