13.4. Para-virtualized Network Driver Configuration

Once the para-virtualized network driver is loaded you may need to reconfigure the guest's network interface to reflect the driver and virtual ethernet card change.

Perform the following steps to reconfigure the network interface inside the guest.

In virt-manager open the console window for the guest and log in as root.
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 verify the file /etc/modprobe.conf contains the line “alias eth0 xen-vnif”.
```
# cat /etc/modprobe.conf
alias eth0 xen-vnif
```

To display the present settings for eth0 execute “# ifconfig eth0”. If you receive an error about the device not existing you should load the modules manually as outlined in Section 31.5, “Manually loading the para-virtualized drivers”.

ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:00:6A:27:3A  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:630150 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:109336431 (104.2 MiB)  TX bytes:846 (846.0 b)

Start the network configuration utility(NetworkManager) with the command “# system-config-network”. Click on the “Forward” button to start the network card configuration.
Select the 'Xen Virtual Ethernet Card (eth0)' entry and click 'Forward'.

Configure the network settings as required.
Complete the configuration by pressing the 'Apply' button.
Press the 'Activate' button to apply the new settings and restart the network.

You should now see the new network interface with an IP address assigned.

ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:3E:49:E4:E0
          inet addr:192.168.78.180  Bcast:192.168.79.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:630150 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:501209 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:109336431 (104.2 MiB)  TX bytes:46265452 (44.1 MiB)