[libvirt] RFC: configuring host interfaces with libvirt

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 09:06:05AM +0000, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-01-16 at 03:29 +0000, John Levon wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 02:59:17AM +0000, David Lutterkort wrote:
> > 
> > > I am not disagreeing with you, but either way, libvirt needs _some_ way
> > > to control host interfaces.
> > 
> > This is far from obvious to me. Could you explain more?
> 
> You're right to ask, IMHO.
> 
> The rationale will be better explained by others, I'm sure, but here
> goes:
> 
>     Any serious virtualization management tool needs to be able to 
>     configure the networking interfaces on a remote host.
> 
>     libvirt aims to be an all-encompassing API for such management 
>     tools.
> 
> The obvious worry is how will we decide where to draw the line? If
> someone is writing a virt management tool that e.g. needs to install
> packages on hosts, will we add support for that?

I think the difference that, is that installing RPMS is not anything todo
with virtualization in the general case - it would just be a particular
apps approach to working with its OS - as such it would be out of scope
for libvirt. 

Integrating with host networking meanwhile is a fundamental requirement 
for virtualization for all apps using libvirt, since guests need network
connectivity, and thus managing NICs should be within scope.

Also note there is existing precedent as the CIM APi, Xen-API, VMWare
and VirtualIron  APIs all provide for management of host NICs.

Daniel
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