Chapitre 16. Configuring virtual machine network connections

For your virtual machines (VMs) to connect over a network to your host, to other VMs on your host, and to locations on an external network, the VM networking must be configured accordingly. To provide VM networking, the RHEL 9 hypervisor and newly created VMs have a default network configuration, which can also be modified further. For example:

  • You can enable the VMs on your host to be discovered and connected to by locations outside the host, as if the VMs were on the same network as the host.
  • You can partially or completely isolate a VM from inbound network traffic to increase its security and minimize the risk of any problems with the VM impacting the host.

The following sections explain the various types of VM network configuration and provide instructions for setting up selected VM network configurations.

16.1. Understanding virtual networking

The connection of virtual machines (VMs) to other devices and locations on a network has to be facilitated by the host hardware. The following sections explain the mechanisms of VM network connections and describe the default VM network setting.

16.1.1. How virtual networks work

Virtual networking uses the concept of a virtual network switch. A virtual network switch is a software construct that operates on a host machine. VMs connect to the network through the virtual network switch. Based on the configuration of the virtual switch, a VM can use an existing virtual network managed by the hypervisor, or a different network connection method.

The following figure shows a virtual network switch connecting two VMs to the network:

vn 02 switchandtwoguests

From the perspective of a guest operating system, a virtual network connection is the same as a physical network connection. Host machines view virtual network switches as network interfaces. When the virtnetworkd service is first installed and started, it creates virbr0, the default network interface for VMs.

To view information about this interface, use the ip utility on the host. 

$ ip addr show virbr0
3: virbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state
 UNKNOWN link/ether 1b:c4:94:cf:fd:17 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
 inet 192.168.122.1/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global virbr0

By default, all VMs on a single host are connected to the same NAT-type virtual network, named default, which uses the virbr0 interface. For details, see Virtual networking default configuration.

For basic outbound-only network access from VMs, no additional network setup is usually needed, because the default network is installed along with the libvirt-daemon-config-network package, and is automatically started when the virtnetworkd service is started.

If a different VM network functionality is needed, you can create additional virtual networks and network interfaces and configure your VMs to use them. In addition to the default NAT, these networks and interfaces can be configured to use one of the following modes:

16.1.2. Virtual networking default configuration

When the virtnetworkd service is first installed on a virtualization host, it contains an initial virtual network configuration in network address translation (NAT) mode. By default, all VMs on the host are connected to the same libvirt virtual network, named default. VMs on this network can connect to locations both on the host and on the network beyond the host, but with the following limitations:

  • VMs on the network are visible to the host and other VMs on the host, but the network traffic is affected by the firewalls in the guest operating system’s network stack and by the libvirt network filtering rules attached to the guest interface.
  • VMs on the network can connect to locations outside the host but are not visible to them. Outbound traffic is affected by the NAT rules, as well as the host system’s firewall.

The following diagram illustrates the default VM network configuration:

vn 08 network overview