[ale] kvm port forwarding confusion, kindly help

[djpfulio at jdpfu.com (DJ-Pfulio)]

On 06/02/2015 11:42 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:
>> > Virtual box and VMware allow this and there are nice tools to configure
> at the Hypervisor level.  Does KVM allow this thru KVM-NAT-CONFIG ?
> 
> You'll need to setup a bridged network for KVM to use for the VMs. The gui
> tool virt-manager has this in the advanced configurations. Basically the
> physical NIC now listens to all the virtual IPs and forwards the traffic
> unchanged. This will allow non-host traffic to reach the VMs. In standard
> mode, the VMs are NATed automagically by the virtual switch creating IPs
> using dhcp.
> 


I've never had consistent connectivity using the automatic-bridges created by
KVM. In theory, they should be just as good as a manually created bridge, but in
practice, that has NOT been my experience.  When it comes to networking and KVM,
I do it all outside the VM, virt-manager, KVM, or/and qemu settings.

Manually creating a bridge makes the networking stable and all the VMs are on
equal footing with the rest of the network devices. Treat them just like real
physical hosts.

IMHO. IME, TNSTAAFL