Network configuration

LXD supports the following network types:

  • bridge: Creates an L2 bridge for connecting instances to (can provide local DHCP and DNS). This is the default.

  • macvlan: Provides preset configuration to use when connecting instances to a parent macvlan interface.

  • sriov: Provides preset configuration to use when connecting instances to a parent SR-IOV interface.

  • ovn: Creates a logical network using the OVN software defined networking system.

  • physical: Provides preset configuration to use when connecting OVN networks to a parent interface.

The desired type can be specified using the --type argument, e.g.

lxc network create <name> --type=bridge [options...]

If no --type argument is specified, the default type of bridge is used.

The configuration keys are namespaced with the following namespaces currently supported for all network types:

  • maas (MAAS network identification)

  • user (free form key/value for user metadata)

network: bridge

As one of the possible network configuration types under LXD, LXD supports creating and managing network bridges. LXD bridges can leverage underlying native Linux bridges and Open vSwitch.

Creation and management of LXD bridges is performed via the lxc network command. A bridge created by LXD is by default “managed” which means that LXD also will additionally set up a local dnsmasq DHCP server and if desired also perform NAT for the bridge (this is the default.)

When a bridge is managed by LXD, configuration values under the bridge namespace can be used to configure it.

Additionally, LXD can utilize a pre-existing Linux bridge. In this case, the bridge does not need to be created via lxc network and can simply be referenced in an instance or profile device configuration as follows:

devices:
  eth0:
     name: eth0
     nictype: bridged
     parent: br0
     type: nic

Network forwards:

Bridge networks support network forwards.

Network configuration properties:

A complete list of configuration settings for LXD networks can be found below.

The following configuration key namespaces are currently supported for bridge networks:

  • bridge (L2 interface configuration)

  • fan (configuration specific to the Ubuntu FAN overlay)

  • tunnel (cross-host tunneling configuration)

  • ipv4 (L3 IPv4 configuration)

  • ipv6 (L3 IPv6 configuration)

  • dns (DNS server and resolution configuration)

  • raw (raw configuration file content)

It is expected that IP addresses and subnets are given using CIDR notation (1.1.1.1/24 or fd80:1234::1/64).

The exception being tunnel local and remote addresses which are just plain addresses (1.1.1.1 or fd80:1234::1).

Key

Type

Condition

Default

Description

bgp.peers.N AME.address

string

bgp server

Peer address (IPv4 or IPv6)

bgp.peers.N AME.asn

integer

bgp server

Peer AS number

bgp.peers.N AME.passwor d

string

bgp server

  • (no

password)

Peer session password (optional)

bgp.ipv4.ne xthop

string

bgp server

local address

Override the next-hop for advertised prefixes

bgp.ipv6.ne xthop

string

bgp server

local address

Override the next-hop for advertised prefixes

bridge.driv er

string

native

Bridge driver (“native” or “openvswitc h”)

bridge.exte rnal_interf aces

string

Comma separate list of unconfigure d network interfaces to include in the bridge

bridge.hwad dr

string

MAC address for the bridge

bridge.mode

string

standard

Bridge operation mode (“standard” or “fan”)

bridge.mtu

integer

1500

Bridge MTU (default varies if tunnel or fan setup)

dns.domain

string

lxd

Domain to advertise to DHCP clients and use for DNS resolution

dns.mode

string

managed

DNS registratio n mode (“none” for no DNS record, “managed” for LXD generated static records or “dynamic” for client generated records)

dns.search

string

Full comma separated domain search list, defaulting to dns.domai n value

fan.overlay _subnet

string

fan mode

240.0.0.0/8

Subnet to use as the overlay for the FAN (CIDR notation)

fan.type

string

fan mode

vxlan

The tunneling type for the FAN (“vxlan” or “ipip”)

fan.underla y_subnet

string

fan mode

auto (on create only)

Subnet to use as the underlay for the FAN (CIDR notation). Use “auto” to use default gateway subnet

ipv4.addres s

string

standard mode

auto (on create only)

IPv4 address for the bridge (CIDR notation). Use “none” to turn off IPv4 or “auto” to generate a new random unused subnet

ipv4.dhcp

boolean

ipv4 address

true

Whether to allocate addresses using DHCP

ipv4.dhcp.e xpiry

string

ipv4 dhcp

1h

When to expire DHCP leases

ipv4.dhcp.g ateway

string

ipv4 dhcp

ipv4.addres s

Address of the gateway for the subnet

ipv4.dhcp.r anges

string

ipv4 dhcp

all addresses

Comma separated list of IP ranges to use for DHCP (FIRST-LAST format)

ipv4.firewa ll

boolean

ipv4 address

true

Whether to generate filtering firewall rules for this network

ipv4.nat.ad dress

string

ipv4 address

The source address used for outbound traffic from the bridge

ipv4.nat

boolean

ipv4 address

false

Whether to NAT (defaults to true for regular bridges where ipv4.addres s is generated and always defaults to true for fan bridges)

ipv4.nat.or der

string

ipv4 address

before

Whether to add the required NAT rules before or after any pre-existin g rules

ipv4.ovn.ra nges

string

Comma separate list of IPv4 ranges to use for child OVN network routers (FIRST-LAST format)

ipv4.routes

string

ipv4 address

Comma separated list of additional IPv4 CIDR subnets to route to the bridge

ipv4.routin g

boolean

ipv4 address

true

Whether to route traffic in and out of the bridge

ipv6.addres s

string

standard mode

auto (on create only)

IPv6 address for the bridge (CIDR notation). Use “none” to turn off IPv6 or “auto” to generate a new random unused subnet

ipv6.dhcp

boolean

ipv6 address

true

Whether to provide additional network configurati on over DHCP

ipv6.dhcp.e xpiry

string

ipv6 dhcp

1h

When to expire DHCP leases

ipv6.dhcp.r anges

string

ipv6 stateful dhcp

all addresses

Comma separated list of IPv6 ranges to use for DHCP (FIRST-LAST format)

ipv6.dhcp.s tateful

boolean

ipv6 dhcp

false

Whether to allocate addresses using DHCP

ipv6.firewa ll

boolean

ipv6 address

true

Whether to generate filtering firewall rules for this network

ipv6.nat.ad dress

string

ipv6 address

The source address used for outbound traffic from the bridge

ipv6.nat

boolean

ipv6 address

false

Whether to NAT (will default to true if unset and a random ipv6.addres s is generated)

ipv6.nat.or der

string

ipv6 address

before

Whether to add the required NAT rules before or after any pre-existin g rules

ipv6.ovn.ra nges

string

Comma separate list of IPv6 ranges to use for child OVN network routers (FIRST-LAST format)

ipv6.routes

string

ipv6 address

Comma separated list of additional IPv6 CIDR subnets to route to the bridge

ipv6.routin g

boolean

ipv6 address

true

Whether to route traffic in and out of the bridge

maas.subnet .ipv4

string

ipv4 address

MAAS IPv4 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

maas.subnet .ipv6

string

ipv6 address

MAAS IPv6 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

raw.dnsmasq

string

Additional dnsmasq configurati on to append to the configurati on file

tunnel.NAME .group

string

vxlan

239.0.0.1

Multicast address for vxlan (used if local and remote aren’t set)

tunnel.NAME .id

integer

vxlan

0

Specific tunnel ID to use for the vxlan tunnel

tunnel.NAME .interface

string

vxlan

Specific host interface to use for the tunnel

tunnel.NAME .local

string

gre or vxlan

Local address for the tunnel (not necessary for multicast vxlan)

tunnel.NAME .port

integer

vxlan

0

Specific port to use for the vxlan tunnel

tunnel.NAME .protocol

string

standard mode

Tunneling protocol (“vxlan” or “gre”)

tunnel.NAME .remote

string

gre or vxlan

Remote address for the tunnel (not necessary for multicast vxlan)

tunnel.NAME .ttl

integer

vxlan

1

Specific TTL to use for multicast routing topologies

security.ac ls

string

Comma separated list of Network ACLs to apply to NICs connected to this network (see Limitation s)

security.ac ls.default. ingress.act ion

string

security.ac ls

reject

Action to use for ingress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

security.ac ls.default. egress.acti on

string

security.ac ls

reject

Action to use for egress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

security.ac ls.default. ingress.log ged

boolean

security.ac ls

false

Whether to log ingress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

security.ac ls.default. egress.logg ed

boolean

security.ac ls

false

Whether to log egress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

Those keys can be set using the lxc tool with:

lxc network set <network> <key> <value>

Integration with systemd-resolved

If the system running LXD uses systemd-resolved to perform DNS lookups, it’s possible to notify resolved of the domain(s) that LXD is able to resolve. This requires telling resolved the specific bridge(s), nameserver address(es), and dns domain(s).

For example, if LXD is using the lxdbr0 interface, get the ipv4 address with lxc network get lxdbr0 ipv4.address command (the ipv6 can be used instead or in addition), and the domain with lxc network get lxdbr0 dns.domain (if unset, the domain is lxd as shown in the table above). Then notify resolved:

systemd-resolve --interface lxdbr0 --set-domain '~lxd' --set-dns n.n.n.n

Replace lxdbr0 with the actual bridge name, and n.n.n.n with the actual address of the nameserver (without the subnet netmask).

Also replace lxd with the domain name. Note the ~ before the domain name is important; it tells resolved to use this nameserver to look up only this domain; no matter what your actual domain name is, you should prefix it with ~. Also, since the shell may expand the ~ character, you may need to include it in quotes.

In newer releases of systemd, the systemd-resolve command has been deprecated, however it is still provided for backwards compatibility (as of this writing). The newer method to notify resolved is using the resolvectl command, which would be done in two steps:

resolvectl dns lxdbr0 n.n.n.n
resolvectl domain lxdbr0 '~lxd'

This resolved configuration will persist as long as the bridge exists, so you must repeat this command each reboot and after LXD is restarted (see below on how to automate this).

Also note this only works if the bridge dns.mode is not none.

Note that depending on the dns.domain used, you may need to disable DNSSEC in resolved to allow for DNS resolution. This can be done through the DNSSEC option in resolved.conf.

To automate the systemd-resolved DNS configuration when LXD creates the lxdbr0 interface so that it is applied on system start you need to create a systemd unit file /etc/systemd/system/lxd-dns-lxdbr0.service containing:

[Unit]
Description=LXD per-link DNS configuration for lxdbr0
BindsTo=sys-subsystem-net-devices-lxdbr0.device
After=sys-subsystem-net-devices-lxdbr0.device

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/resolvectl dns lxdbr0 n.n.n.n
ExecStart=/usr/bin/resolvectl domain lxdbr0 '~lxd'

[Install]
WantedBy=sys-subsystem-net-devices-lxdbr0.device

Be sure to replace n.n.n.n in that file with the IP of the lxdbr0 bridge.

Then enable and start it using:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now lxd-dns-lxdbr0

If the lxdbr0 interface already exists (i.e LXD is running), then you can check that the new service has started:

sudo systemctl status lxd-dns-lxdbr0.service
● lxd-dns-lxdbr0.service - LXD per-link DNS configuration for lxdbr0
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/lxd-dns-lxdbr0.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2021-06-14 17:03:12 BST; 1min 2s ago
    Process: 9433 ExecStart=/usr/bin/resolvectl dns lxdbr0 n.n.n.n (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 9434 ExecStart=/usr/bin/resolvectl domain lxdbr0 ~lxd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 9434 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

You can then check it has applied the settings using:

sudo resolvectl status lxdbr0
Link 6 (lxdbr0)
      Current Scopes: DNS
DefaultRoute setting: no
       LLMNR setting: yes
MulticastDNS setting: no
  DNSOverTLS setting: no
      DNSSEC setting: no
    DNSSEC supported: no
  Current DNS Server: n.n.n.n
         DNS Servers: n.n.n.n
          DNS Domain: ~lxd

IPv6 prefix size

For optimal operation, a prefix size of 64 is preferred. Larger subnets (prefix smaller than 64) should work properly too but aren’t typically that useful for SLAAC.

Smaller subnets while in theory possible when using stateful DHCPv6 for IPv6 allocation aren’t properly supported by dnsmasq and may be the source of issue. If you must use one of those, static allocation or another standalone RA daemon be used.

Allow DHCP, DNS with Firewalld

In order to allow instances to access the DHCP and DNS server that LXD runs on the host when using firewalld you need to add the host’s bridge interface to the trusted zone in firewalld.

To do this permanently (so that it persists after a reboot) run the following command:

firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --change-interface=<LXD network name> --permanent

E.g. for a bridged network called lxdbr0 run the command:

firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --change-interface=lxdbr0 --permanent

This will then allow LXD’s own firewall rules to take effect.

How to let Firewalld control the LXD’s iptables rules

When using firewalld and LXD together, iptables rules can overlaps. For example, firewalld could erase LXD iptables rules if it is started after LXD daemon, then LXD container will not be able to do any oubound internet access. One way to fix it is to delegate to firewalld the LXD’s iptables rules and to disable the LXD ones.

First step is to allow DNS and DHCP.

Then to tell to LXD totally stop to set iptables rules (because firewalld will do it):

lxc network set lxdbr0 ipv4.nat false
lxc network set lxdbr0 ipv6.nat false
lxc network set lxdbr0 ipv6.firewall false
lxc network set lxdbr0 ipv4.firewall false

Finally, to enable iptables firewalld’s rules for LXD usecase (in this example, we suppose the bridge interface is lxdbr0 and the associated IP range is 10.0.0.0/24:

firewall-cmd --permanent --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter INPUT 0 -i lxdbr0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 -m comment --comment "generated by firewalld for LXD" -j ACCEPT
firewall-cmd --permanent --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter OUTPUT 0 -o lxdbr0 -d 10.0.0.0/24 -m comment --comment "generated by firewalld for LXD" -j ACCEPT
firewall-cmd --permanent --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter FORWARD 0 -i lxdbr0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 -m comment --comment "generated by firewalld for LXD" -j ACCEPT
firewall-cmd --permanent --direct --add-rule ipv4 nat POSTROUTING 0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 ! -d 10.0.0.0/24 -m comment --comment "generated by firewalld for LXD" -j MASQUERADE
firewall-cmd --reload

To check the rules are taken into account by firewalld:

firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-rules

Warning: what is exposed above is not a fool-proof approach and may end up inadvertently introducing a security risk.

network: macvlan

The macvlan network type allows one to specify presets to use when connecting instances to a parent interface using macvlan NICs. This allows the instance NIC itself to simply specify the network it is connecting to without knowing any of the underlying configuration details.

Network configuration properties:

Key

Type

Condition

Default

Description

maas.subnet .ipv4

string

ipv4 address

MAAS IPv4 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

maas.subnet .ipv6

string

ipv6 address

MAAS IPv6 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

mtu

integer

The MTU of the new interface

parent

string

Parent interface to create macvlan NICs on

vlan

integer

The VLAN ID to attach to

gvrp

boolean

false

Register VLAN using GARP VLAN Registratio n Protocol

network: sriov

The sriov network type allows one to specify presets to use when connecting instances to a parent interface using sriov NICs. This allows the instance NIC itself to simply specify the network it is connecting to without knowing any of the underlying configuration details.

Network configuration properties:

Key

Type

Condition

Default

Description

maas.subnet .ipv4

string

ipv4 address

MAAS IPv4 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

maas.subnet .ipv6

string

ipv6 address

MAAS IPv6 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

mtu

integer

The MTU of the new interface

parent

string

Parent interface to create sriov NICs on

vlan

integer

The VLAN ID to attach to

network: ovn

The ovn network type allows the creation of logical networks using the OVN SDN. This can be useful for labs and multi-tenant environments where the same logical subnets are used in multiple discrete networks.

A LXD OVN network can be connected to an existing managed LXD bridge network in order for it to gain outbound access to the wider network. All connections from the OVN logical networks are NATed to a dynamic IP allocated by the parent network.

Standalone LXD OVN setup

This will create a standalone OVN network that is connected to the parent network lxdbr0 for outbound connectivity.

Install the OVN tools and configure the OVN integration bridge on the local node:

sudo apt install ovn-host ovn-central
sudo ovs-vsctl set open_vswitch . \
  external_ids:ovn-remote=unix:/var/run/ovn/ovnsb_db.sock \
  external_ids:ovn-encap-type=geneve \
  external_ids:ovn-encap-ip=127.0.0.1

Create an OVN network and an instance using it:

lxc network set lxdbr0 ipv4.dhcp.ranges=... ipv4.ovn.ranges=... # Allocate IP range for OVN gateways.
lxc network create ovntest --type=ovn network=lxdbr0
lxc init images:ubuntu/20.04 c1
lxc config device override c1 eth0 network=ovntest
lxc start c1
lxc ls
+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| NAME |  STATE  |        IPV4         |                     IPV6                     |   TYPE    | SNAPSHOTS |
+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| c1   | RUNNING | 10.254.118.2 (eth0) | fd42:887:cff3:5089:216:3eff:fef0:549f (eth0) | CONTAINER | 0         |
+------+---------+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------+

Network forwards:

OVN networks support network forwards.

Network configuration properties:

Key

Type

Condition

Default

Description

bridge.hwad dr

string

MAC address for the bridge

bridge.mtu

integer

1442

Bridge MTU (default allows host to host geneve tunnels)

dns.domain

string

lxd

Domain to advertise to DHCP clients and use for DNS resolution

dns.search

string

Full comma separated domain search list, defaulting to dns.domai n value

ipv4.addres s

string

standard mode

auto (on create only)

IPv4 address for the bridge (CIDR notation). Use “none” to turn off IPv4 or “auto” to generate a new random unused subnet

ipv4.dhcp

boolean

ipv4 address

true

Whether to allocate addresses using DHCP

ipv4.nat

boolean

ipv4 address

false

Whether to NAT (will default to true if unset and a random ipv4.addres s is generated)

ipv4.nat.ad dress

string

ipv4 address

The source address used for outbound traffic from the network (requires uplink ovn.ingre ss_mode=rou ted)

ipv6.addres s

string

standard mode

auto (on create only)

IPv6 address for the bridge (CIDR notation). Use “none” to turn off IPv6 or “auto” to generate a new random unused subnet

ipv6.nat.ad dress

string

ipv6 address

The source address used for outbound traffic from the network (requires uplink ovn.ingre ss_mode=rou ted)

ipv6.dhcp

boolean

ipv6 address

true

Whether to provide additional network configurati on over DHCP

ipv6.dhcp.s tateful

boolean

ipv6 dhcp

false

Whether to allocate addresses using DHCP

ipv6.nat

boolean

ipv6 address

false

Whether to NAT (will default to true if unset and a random ipv6.addres s is generated)

network

string

Uplink network to use for external network access

security.ac ls

string

Comma separated list of Network ACLs to apply to NICs connected to this network

security.ac ls.default. ingress.act ion

string

security.ac ls

reject

Action to use for ingress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

security.ac ls.default. egress.acti on

string

security.ac ls

reject

Action to use for egress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

security.ac ls.default. ingress.log ged

boolean

security.ac ls

false

Whether to log ingress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

security.ac ls.default. egress.logg ed

boolean

security.ac ls

false

Whether to log egress traffic that doesn’t match any ACL rule

network: physical

The physical network type allows one to specify presets to use when connecting OVN networks to a parent interface.

Network configuration properties:

Key

Type

Condition

Default

Description

bgp.peers.N AME.address

string

bgp server

Peer address (IPv4 or IPv6) for use by ovn downstream networks

bgp.peers.N AME.asn

integer

bgp server

Peer AS number for use by ovn downstream networks

bgp.peers.N AME.passwor d

string

bgp server

  • (no

password)

Peer session password (optional) for use by ovn downstream networks

maas.subnet .ipv4

string

ipv4 address

MAAS IPv4 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

maas.subnet .ipv6

string

ipv6 address

MAAS IPv6 subnet to register instances in (when using network property on nic)

mtu

integer

The MTU of the new interface

parent

string

Parent interface to create sriov NICs on

vlan

integer

The VLAN ID to attach to

gvrp

boolean

false

Register VLAN using GARP VLAN Registratio n Protocol

ipv4.gatewa y

string

standard mode

IPv4 address for the gateway and network (CIDR notation)

ipv4.ovn.ra nges

string

Comma separate list of IPv4 ranges to use for child OVN network routers (FIRST-LAST format)

ipv4.routes

string

ipv4 address

Comma separated list of additional IPv4 CIDR subnets that can be used with child OVN networks ipv4.routes .external setting

ipv4.routes .anycast

boolean

ipv4 address

false

Allow the overlapping routes to be used on multiple networks/NI C at the same time.

ipv6.gatewa y

string

standard mode

IPv6 address for the gateway and network (CIDR notation)

ipv6.ovn.ra nges

string

Comma separate list of IPv6 ranges to use for child OVN network routers (FIRST-LAST format)

ipv6.routes

string

ipv6 address

Comma separated list of additional IPv6 CIDR subnets that can be used with child OVN networks ipv6.routes .external setting

ipv6.routes .anycast

boolean

ipv6 address

false

Allow the overlapping routes to be used on multiple networks/NI C at the same time.

dns.nameser vers

string

standard mode

List of DNS server IPs on physical network

ovn.ingress _mode

string

standard mode

l2proxy

Sets the method that OVN NIC external IPs will be advertised on uplink network. Either l2proxy (proxy ARP/NDP) or routed.

BGP integration

LXD can act as a BGP server, effectively allowing to establish sessions with upstream BGP routers and announce the addresses and subnets that it’s using.

This can be used to allow a LXD server or cluster to directly use internal/external address space, getting the specific subnets or addresses routed to the correct host for it to forward onto the target instance.

For this to work, core.bgp_address, core.bgp_asn and core.bgp_routerid must be set. Once those are set, LXD will start listening for BGP sessions.

Peers can be defined on both bridged and physical managed networks. Additionally in the bridged case, a set of per-server configuration keys are also available to override the next-hop. When those aren’t specified, the next-hop defaults to the address used for the BGP session.

The physical network case is used for ovn networks where the uplink network is the one holding the list of allowed subnets and the BGP configuration. Once that parent network is configured, children OVN networks will get their external subnets and addresses announced over BGP with the next-hop set to the OVN router address for the network in question.

The addresses and networks currently being advertised are: - Network ipv4.address or ipv6.address subnets when the matching nat property isn’t set to true - Network ipv4.nat.address and ipv6.nat.address when those are set - Instance NIC routes defined through ipv4.routes.external or ipv6.routes.external

At this time, there isn’t a way to only announce some specific routes/addresses to particular peers. Instead it’s currently recommended to filter prefixes on the upstream routers.