Paravirtualization

The following steps demonstrate how to enable paravirtualization networking support on RHEL 7.x systems without NetworkManager, using a manually configured bridge.

1. Create a configuration file for the bridge interface (bridge0): 

   vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bridge0
   

   Example contents:

   DEVICE=bridge0
   TYPE=Bridge
   IPADDR=12.195.15.1
   NETMASK=255.255.0.0
   BOOTPROTO=static
   ONBOOT=yes
   NM_CONTROLLED=no
   DELAY=0
   

2. Modify the configuration of the physical Ethernet interface (in this example, eth5) to associate it with the bridge:

   vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth5
   
   
   

   Example contents: 

   DEVICE=eth5
   BOOTPROTO=none
   STARTMODE=on
   HWADDR=00:02:c9:2e:66:52
   TYPE=Ethernet
   NM_CONTROLLED=no
   ONBOOT=yes
   BRIDGE=bridge0
   

3. Apply the configuration changes by restarting the network service: 

   service network restart

   This will temporarily disrupt network connectivity.

4. Once the bridge is active, you can assign it to a virtual machine (VM). After booting the VM, verify that the virtual interface is using the bridged connection:

   ifconfig -a
   

    Example output:

   eth6      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 52:54:00:E7:77:99
             inet addr:13.195.15.5  Bcast:13.195.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
             inet6 addr: fe80::5054:ff:fee7:7799/64 Scope:Link
             UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
             RX packets:481 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
             TX packets:450 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
             collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
             RX bytes:22440 (21.9 KiB)  TX bytes:19232 (18.7 KiB)
   

Last updated: May 27, 2026