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XVIF(4)                   Device Drivers Manual (xen)                  XVIF(4)

NAME
     xvif - Xen backend paravirtualized network interface

SYNOPSIS
     pseudo-device xvif

DESCRIPTION
     The xvif interface forms the backend part of the paravirtualized drivers
     used by Xen domains to offer network connectivity.

     When the guest domain is NetBSD, the endpoint of the xvif interface is a
     xennet(4) interface.  In the XenStore, xvif and xennet are identified by
     "vif" (virtual interface) entries.

     All xvif interfaces follow the "xvifXiY" naming convention, where `X'
     represents the guest domain identifier, and `Y' an arbitrary identifier;
     most of the time, it is the frontend interface identifier, e.g.
     "xennetY".

     For convenience, the MAC address of an xvif interface is chosen by
     incrementing the third byte of the MAC address of the frontend device.

     Conceptually, frontends and backends drivers are similar to two Ethernet
     cards connected via a crossover cable.

DIAGNOSTICS
     xvif%di%d: can't read %s/mac: %d  The MAC address for this interface
     could not be read from XenStore.

     xvif%di%d: %s is not a valid mac address  The MAC address specified in
     the configuration file of the newly created guest domain is invalid.

     xvif%di%d: Ethernet address %s  MAC address of the xvif interface.

SEE ALSO
     ifmedia(4), xennet(4), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
     The xvif driver first appeared in NetBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS
     The xvif driver was written by Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@NetBSD.org>.

NetBSD 10.99                     April 7, 2011                    NetBSD 10.99