Creating and Linking Network Bridge

Before creating a new VM instance, you must create network bridges for management (MGT), high availability (HA), and packet ports (PKT0 and PKT1). These are linked to the physical interfaces on the host. This section explains how to create the network bridges and link to the physical interfaces.

For SR-IOV and Direct I/O setup, network bridge is not required for PKT0 and PKT1.

Log on to the host system as root user through an SSH client such as PuTTY.
To navigate to network scripts directory, execute below command:
```
cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
```
Perform the following to create a bridge for MGT interface:
1. Create and Open the ifcfg-mgtbridge file in vi editor using the following command:
```
vi ifcfg-mgtbridge
```
2. Enter the MGT bridge details. Information like IP Address, Netmask, and Gateway varies based on the configuration.
```
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE=mgtbridge
IPADDR=xx.xx.xx.xx
NETMASK=xx.xx.xx.xx
GATEWAY=xx.xx.xx.xx
STP=off
USERCTL=no
NOZEROCONF=yes
ONBOOT=yes
```
3. Press Esc key.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```
Link a bridge with MGT interface:
1. Create and Open the ifcfg-eno1 file using vi editor using the following command.
```
vi ifcfg-eno1
```
2. Enter the MGT bridge details as shown below:
```
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=fcd2131c-9142-42e4-bce4-825f4c8efc7f
DEVICE=em1
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE="mgtbridge"
```
3. Press Esc key.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```
Perform the following to create a bridge for HA interface:
1. Create and Open the ifcfg-habridge file using vi editor using the following command.
```
vi ifcfg-habridge
```
2. Enter the HA bridge details as shown below:
```
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE=habridge
STP=off
USERCTL=no
NOZEROCONF=yes
ONBOOT=yes
IPV6_DISABLED=yes
IPV6INIT=no
```
3. Press Esc.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```
Link a bridge with HA interface:
1. Create and Open the ifcfg-eno2 file using vi editor using the following command.
```
vi ifcfg-eno2
```
2. Enter the HA bridge details as shown below:
```
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=fcd2131c-9142-42e4-bce4-825f4c8efc7f
DEVICE=em2
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE="habridge"
```
3. Press Esc key.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```
Perform the following to create a bridge for PKT0 interface:
1. Create and Open theifcfg-pkt0bridge file using vi editor using the following command:
```
vi ifcfg-pkt0bridge
```
2. Enter the PKT0 bridge details as shown below:
```
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE=pkt0bridge
IPADDR=xx.xx.xx.xx
NETMASK=xx.xx.xx.xx
GATEWAY=xx.xx.xx.xx
STP=off
USERCTL=no
NOZEROCONF=yes
ONBOOT=yes
```
3. Press Esc.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```
Link a bridge with PKT0 interface:
1. Create and Open the ifcfg-eno3 file using vi editor using the following command.
```
vi ifcfg-eno3
```
2. Enter the PKT0 bridge details as shown below:
```
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=fcd2131c-9142-42e4-bce4-825f4c8efc7f
DEVICE=em3
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE="pkt0bridge"
```
3. Press Esc key.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```

Perform the following to create a bridge for PKT1 interface:

Create and Open theifcfg-pkt1bridgefile using vi editor using the following command:
```
vi ifcfg-pkt1bridge
```

Enter the PKT1 bridge details as shown below:

TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=none
DEVICE=pkt1bridge
IPADDR=xx.xx.xx.xx
NETMASK=xx.xx.xx.xx
GATEWAY=xx.xx.xx.xx
STP=off
USERCTL=no
NOZEROCONF=yes
ONBOOT=yes

The table below lists the parameters for MGT, HA, PKT0, and PKT1 bridges:

Parameter	Description	Setting
`TYPE`	Specify the bridge type	For example, the Network Bridge
`BOOTPROTO`	The boot time protocol setting	Set to none for this requirement
`DEVICE`	The name of the bridge that is used to link with the physical interface on the host
`IPADDR`	The IP address for this bridge
`NETMASK`	The netmask value associated with the entered IP address
`GATEWAY`	The gateway address associated with the entered IP address
`STP`	The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) setting	Set to off for this requirement
`USERCTL`	The user control for the device	Set to no to allow only the super-user root to control this device
`NOZEROCONF`	Enable/disable zeroconf routing	Set to yes to disable zeroconf routing
`ONBOOT`	Choose whether or not to activate the bridge at boot-time	Set to yes to activate the bridge at boot-time
`IPV6_DISABLED`	Specify whether or not to disable IPv6	Set to yes to disable IPv6
`IPV6INIT`	Specify whether to initialize for IPv6 addressing	Set to yes to initialize this interface for IPv6 addressing

Press Esc.
To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```

Link a bridge with PKT1 interface:
1. Create and Open the ifcfg-eno4 file using vi editor using the following command.
```
vi ifcfg-eno4
```
2. Enter the PKT1 bridge details as shown below:
```
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=fcd2131c-9142-42e4-bce4-825f4c8efc7f
DEVICE=em4
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE="pkt1bridge"
```
3. Press Esc key.
4. To save the file and quit from vi editor, execute below command:
```
:wq
```

To list the interface created, execute below command:

ls -ltr ifcfg-*

The command executes with the following output.

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 337 Sep  4  2015 ifcfg-eno1
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 353 Sep  4  2015 ifcfg-eno2
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 355 Sep  4  2015 ifcfg-eno3
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 355 Sep  4  2015 ifcfg-eno4
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 151 Sep  4  2015 ifcfg-mgtbridge
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 150 Sep  4  2015 ifcfg-habridge
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 151 Apr 26 17:44 ifcfg-pkt0bridge
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 151 Apr 26 17:44 ifcfg-pkt1bridge

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