What is macvtap exactly?
Is it a new thing?
On what devices/OS is it supported? In all Linux distros or what?
Please help me I am confused.
1 Answer
What is macvtap exactly?
Macvtap is a new device driver meant to simplify virtualized bridged networking. It replaces the combination of the tun/tap and bridge drivers with a single module based on the macvlan device driver. A macvtap endpoint is a character device that largely follows the tun/tap ioctl interface and can be used directly by kvm/qemu and other hypervisors that support the tun/tap interface. The endpoint extends an existing network interface, the lower device, and has its own mac address on the same ethernet segment. Typically, this is used to make both the guest and the host show up directly on the switch that the host is connected to.
Source MacVTap
Further Reading
Virtual networking: TUN/TAP, MacVLAN, and MacVTap (web.archive.org link)
