vbox 2.2.2: Bridged Networking using crossbow vnics on 5.11 snv_110 host and various guest systems unstable

[Karsten Hashimoto]

After booting the host system you will be able to set up bridged networking over VNICs (crossbow vnics, as documented). For a short limited time you will be able to reach all configured addresses from host to guests and vice versa, as well as from guest to guest. Starting a round robin ping to all configured addresses however, after a certain time you will experience some of the configured NICs are not answering anymore. If the guest(s) are rebooted, no connection will be possible anymore, which means that Vbox does not reinitialise it's host driver(s) correctly, even if all guests were stopped and restartet. Rebooting the host will of course temporarily solve the problem. rem_drv and add_drv for vboxflt does NOT help.

To test this behaviour I have 4 vnics created for each of 2 guests and 4 vnics for the host. and I put all vnics into the same network 10.0.0.0 (255.0.0.0). All vnics must be plumbed in the host first and configured with IPs different from the guests. I tested this behaviour positively with Linux and Solaris guests (both 32 and 64 bit), but as it's behaving like a host driver problem, this should hold true for all possible guests.

[Karsten Hashimoto]

creating some vnics for use with vbox

[Karsten Hashimoto]

This the network node in the vm's xml description. MACs have been configured according to the uploaded script create_vnics.sh

<Network>

<Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="C0FFEE000011" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">

<BridgedInterface name="vnic11 - Virtual Network Interface Ethernet"/>

</Adapter> <Adapter slot="1" enabled="true" MACAddress="C0FFEE000012" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">

<BridgedInterface name="vnic12 - Virtual Network Interface Ethernet"/>

</Adapter> <Adapter slot="2" enabled="true" MACAddress="C0FFEE000013" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">

<BridgedInterface name="vnic13 - Virtual Network Interface Ethernet"/>

</Adapter> <Adapter slot="3" enabled="true" MACAddress="C0FFEE000014" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">

<BridgedInterface name="vnic14 - Virtual Network Interface Ethernet"/>

</Adapter> <Adapter slot="4" enabled="false" MACAddress="C0FFEE000015" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">

<BridgedInterface name="vnic15 - Virtual Network Interface Ethernet"/>

</Adapter> <Adapter slot="5" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027F770AB" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/> <Adapter slot="6" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027429BA8" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/> <Adapter slot="7" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027697D91" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>

</Network>

[Ramshankar Venkataraman]

How are the NICs inside the guest setup?

Could you please give me sudo/pfexec ifconfig -a from both the guest?

Also I'm not sure I understand your setup here. You're creating 4 NICs per VM with additional VNICs on the host plumbed over one physical interface?

[Brian Leonard]

I'm experiencing the same. The test case can be much simpler than above.

On the OpenSolaris Host:

1) pfexec dladm create-vnic -l <interface> vnic0
2) pfexec ifconfig plumb vnic0
3) pfexec ifconfig vnic0 dhcp start
4) dladm show-vnic (note the MAC Address)

In VirtualBox (I'm using a Windows XP guest):

1) Set the Network Adapter to Bridged, using vnic0. Note, you also need to set guest's MAC Address to match the VNICs
2) Start the VM and start using the network (browsing the web). Things deteriorate quickly.

[Ramshankar Venkataraman]

This has been fixed in subsequent release, reopen if problem persists.