Index: /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Networking.xml =================================================================== --- /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Networking.xml (revision 39768) +++ /trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Networking.xml (revision 39769) @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ +"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd"> Virtual networking @@ -65,8 +65,8 @@ the PCNet card, such as Windows Vista. - The Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop type works with Windows Vista and later - versions. The T Server variant of the Intel PRO/1000 card is recognized by - Windows XP guests without additional driver installation. The MT Server - variant facilitates OVF imports from other platforms. + The Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop type works with Windows Vista and + later versions. The T Server variant of the Intel PRO/1000 card is + recognized by Windows XP guests without additional driver installation. + The MT Server variant facilitates OVF imports from other platforms. The "Paravirtualized network adapter @@ -184,31 +184,35 @@ - Rarely used modes share the same generic network - interface, by allowing the user to select a driver which can - be included with VirtualBox or be distributed in an extension - pack. + Rarely used modes share the same generic network interface, + by allowing the user to select a driver which can be included with + VirtualBox or be distributed in an extension pack. + At the moment there are potentially two available sub-modes: - - + + UDP Tunnel + - This can be used to interconnect virtual machines running on - different hosts directly, easily and transparently, over existing - network infrastructure. + This can be used to interconnect virtual machines + running on different hosts directly, easily and + transparently, over existing network + infrastructure. + - VDE (Virtual Distributed Ethernet) networking + VDE (Virtual Distributed Ethernet) + networking + - This option can be used to connect to a Virtual Distributed - Ethernet switch on a Linux or a FreeBSD host. At the moment this - needs compiling VirtualBox from sources, as the Oracle packages - do not include it. + This option can be used to connect to a Virtual + Distributed Ethernet switch on a Linux or a FreeBSD host. + At the moment this needs compiling VirtualBox from + sources, as the Oracle packages do not include it. - - + @@ -232,5 +236,6 @@ the virtual machine transparently. In VirtualBox this router is placed between each virtual machine and the host. This separation maximizes - security since by default virtual machines cannot talk to each other. + security since by default virtual machines cannot talk to each + other. The disadvantage of NAT mode is that, much like a private network @@ -479,7 +484,9 @@ be addressed in a future release of Solaris 11. - With VirtualBox 2.0.4 and above, it is possible to use - Crossbow Virtual Network Interfaces (VNICs) with bridged networking, - but with the following caveats: + Starting with VirtualBox 4.1 on Solaris 11 hosts it is + possible to use Solaris' Crossbow Virtual Network Interface (VNICs) + directly with VirtualBox without any additional configuration other + than it must be exclusive for every guest. With VirtualBox 2.0.4 and + above, VNICs can be used but with the following caveats: @@ -509,15 +516,16 @@ Internal Networking is similar to bridged networking in that the VM can directly communicate with the outside world. However, the "outside - world" is limited to other VMs on the same host which connect to the same internal - network. + world" is limited to other VMs on the same host which connect to the same + internal network. Even though technically, everything that can be done using internal networking can also be done using bridged networking, there are security - advantages with internal networking. In bridged networking mode, all traffic - goes through a physical interface of the host system. It is therefore possible - to attach a packet sniffer (such as Wireshark) to the host interface and log - all traffic that goes over it. If, for any reason, you prefer two or more VMs - on the same machine to communicate privately, hiding their data from both - the host system and the user, bridged networking therefore is not an option. + advantages with internal networking. In bridged networking mode, all + traffic goes through a physical interface of the host system. It is + therefore possible to attach a packet sniffer (such as Wireshark) to the + host interface and log all traffic that goes over it. If, for any reason, + you prefer two or more VMs on the same machine to communicate privately, + hiding their data from both the host system and the user, bridged + networking therefore is not an option. Internal networks are created automatically as needed, i.e. there is @@ -634,11 +642,9 @@ This networking mode allows to interconnect virtual machines running - on different hosts. - + on different hosts. Technically this is done by encapsulating Ethernet frames sent or received by the guest network card into UDP/IP datagrams, and sending them - over any network available to the host. - + over any network available to the host. UDP Tunnel mode has three parameters: @@ -657,5 +663,6 @@ - IP address of the target host of the transmitted data. + IP address of the target host of the transmitted + data. @@ -673,4 +680,5 @@ their IP addresses must be swapped. On single host, source and destination UDP ports must be swapped. + In the following example host 1 uses the IP address 10.0.0.1 and host 2 uses IP address 10.0.0.2. Configuration via command-line: VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 01 on host 1" --nic<x> generic @@ -679,21 +687,23 @@ VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 01 on host 1" --nicproperty<x> sport=10001 VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 01 on host 1" --nicproperty<x> dport=10002 - and VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nic<y> generic + and VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nic<y> generic VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nicgenericdrv<y> UDPTunnel VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nicproperty<y> dest=10.0.0.1 VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nicproperty<y> sport=10002 - VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nicproperty<y> dport=10001 - + VBoxManage modifyvm "VM 02 on host 2" --nicproperty<y> dport=10001 Of course, you can always interconnect two virtual machines on the - same host, by setting the destination address parameter to 127.0.0.1 - on both. It will act similarly to "Internal network" in this case, however + same host, by setting the destination address parameter to 127.0.0.1 on + both. It will act similarly to "Internal network" in this case, however the host can see the network traffic which it could not in the normal Internal network case. - On Unix-based hosts (e.g. Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X) it is - not possible to bind to ports below 1024 from applications that are not - run by root. As a result, if you try to - configure such a source UDP port, the VM will refuse to start. + + On Unix-based hosts (e.g. Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X) it is not possible to bind to ports below 1024 from applications that are not run by + + root + + . As a result, if you try to configure such a source UDP port, the VM will refuse to start. + @@ -701,12 +711,12 @@ VDE networking - - Virtual Distributed Ethernet (VDEVDE is a project - developed by Renzo Davoli, Associate Professor at the University of - Bologna, Italy.) is a flexible, virtual network - infrastructure system, spanning across multiple hosts in a secure way. - It allows for L2/L3 switching, including spanning-tree protocol, VLANs, - and WAN emulation. It is an optional part of VirtualBox which is only - included in the source code. + Virtual Distributed Ethernet (VDE + VDE is a project developed by Renzo Davoli, Associate Professor + at the University of Bologna, Italy. + ) is a flexible, virtual network infrastructure system, + spanning across multiple hosts in a secure way. It allows for L2/L3 + switching, including spanning-tree protocol, VLANs, and WAN emulation. It + is an optional part of VirtualBox which is only included in the source + code. The basic building blocks of the infrastructure are VDE switches, @@ -729,37 +739,31 @@ - Create a VDE switch: - vde_switch -s /tmp/switch1 - - - - Configuration via command-line: - VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nic<x> generic + Create a VDE switch: vde_switch -s /tmp/switch1 + + + + Configuration via command-line: VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nic<x> generic VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nicgenericdrv<x> VDE - To connect to automatically allocated switch port, use: - VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nicproperty<x> network=/tmp/switch1 - To connect to specific switch port <n>, use: - VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nicproperty<x> network=/tmp/switch1[<n>] - The latter option can be useful for VLANs. - - - - Optionally map between VDE switch port and VLAN: (from switch CLI) - vde$ vlan/create <VLAN> - vde$ port/setvlan <port> <VLAN> - + To connect to automatically allocated switch port, use: VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nicproperty<x> network=/tmp/switch1 + To connect to specific switch port <n>, use: VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --nicproperty<x> network=/tmp/switch1[<n>] + The latter option can be useful for VLANs. + + + + Optionally map between VDE switch port and VLAN: (from switch + CLI) vde$ vlan/create <VLAN> vde$ port/setvlan <port> <VLAN> VDE is available on Linux and FreeBSD hosts only. It is only - available if the VDE software and the VDE plugin library from the - VirtualSquare project are installed on the host system - For Linux hosts, the shared library libvdeplug.so must be available - in the search path for shared libraries. For more - information on setting up VDE networks, please see the documentation - accompanying the software. - http://wiki.virtualsquare.org/wiki/index.php/VDE_Basic_Networking. - + available if the VDE software and the VDE plugin library from the + VirtualSquare project are installed on the host system + For Linux hosts, the shared library libvdeplug.so must be + available in the search path for shared libraries + . For more information on setting up VDE networks, please see + the documentation accompanying the software. + http://wiki.virtualsquare.org/wiki/index.php/VDE_Basic_Networking. +