Re: [Xen-devel] [RFC v2 3/4] xen-netback: use a random MAC address

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 3:22 AM, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, 2014-02-17 at 10:29 +0000, David Vrabel wrote:
>> On 15/02/14 02:59, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
>> > From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@xxxxxxxx>
>> >
>> > The purpose of using a static MAC address of FE:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
>> > was to prevent our backend interfaces from being used by the
>> > bridge and nominating our interface as a root bridge. This was
>> > possible given that the bridge code will use the lowest MAC
>> > address for a port once a new interface gets added to the bridge.
>> > The bridge code has a generic feature now to allow interfaces
>> > to opt out from root bridge nominations, use that instead.
>> [...]
>> > --- a/drivers/net/xen-netback/interface.c
>> > +++ b/drivers/net/xen-netback/interface.c
>> > @@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
>> >  #define XENVIF_QUEUE_LENGTH 32
>> >  #define XENVIF_NAPI_WEIGHT  64
>> >
>> > +static const u8 xen_oui[3] = { 0x00, 0x16, 0x3e };
>>
>> You shouldn't use a vendor prefix with a random MAC address.  You should
>> set the locally administered bit and clear the multicast/unicast bit and
>> randomize the remaining 46 bits.
>
> I'd have thought that eth_hw_addr_random would get this right, *checks*
> yes it does. And then this patch tramples overt the top three bytes.
>
> Might there be any requirement to have a specific MAC on the vif device?
> IOW do we need to figure out a way to plumb this through the Xen tools
> (perhaps having the vif script sort it out).

Based on Stephen's feedback we should be setting IFLA_BRPORT_PROTECT
to the xen-netback and TAP interfaces in topologies where it makes
sense prior to adding them to the bridge. Userspace can surely deal
with the MAC address but I believe removing the static MAC address
would be good once we get userspace to use the IFLA_BRPORT_PROTECT
flag, to avoid the IPv6 duplication issue incurred by the current
static MAC address. The MAC address consideration remains given that
as per Zoltan there are topologies where the xen-netback interfaces
can make use of a either an IPv4 or IPv6 address.

> Speaking of which -- do the Xen tools not overwrite this random mac from
> xen-network-common.sh:_setup_bridge_port. What is the plan to change
> that (in a forwards/backwards compatible manner).

I'm not seeing that happen now ?

  Luis
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