VNI(7D)VNI(7D)NAMEvni - STREAMS virtual network interface driver
DESCRIPTION
The vni pseudo device is a multi-threaded, loadable, clonable, STREAMS
pseudo-device supporting the connectionless Data Link Provider Inter‐
face dlpi(7P) Style 2. Note that DLPI is intended to interact with IP,
meaning that DLPI access to applications is not supported. (For exam‐
ple, snoop fails on the vni interface.)
The vni device is a software-only interface and does not send or
receive data. The device provides a DLPI upper interface that identi‐
fies itself to IP with a private media type. It can be configured via
ifconfig(1M) and can have IP addresses assigned to it, making aliases
possible.
The vni pseudo device is particularly useful in hosting an IP address
when used in conjunction with the 'usesrc' ifconfig option (see ifcon‐
fig(1M) for examples). The logical instances of the device can also be
used to host addresses as an alternative to hosting them over the loop‐
back interface.
Multicast is not supported on this device. More specifically, the fol‐
lowing options return an error when used with an address specified on
vni: IP_MULTICAST_IF, IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP, IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP, IPV6_MUL‐
TICAST_IF, IPV6_JOIN_GROUP, IPV6_LEAVE_GROUP. In addition, broadcast is
not supported.
Because there is no physical hardware configured below it, no traffic
can be received through nor transmitted on a virtual interface. All
packet transmission and reception is accomplished with existing physi‐
cal interfaces and tunnels. Because applications that deal with packet
transmission and reception (such as packet filters) cannot filter traf‐
fic on virtual interfaces, you cannot set up a packet filter on a vir‐
tual interface. Instead, you should configure the policy rules to apply
to the physical interfaces and tunnels, and if necessary, use the vir‐
tual IP addresses themselves as part of the rule configuration. Also,
note that the virtual interface cannot be part of an IP multipathing
(IPMP) group.
FILES
/dev/vni
64-bit ELF kernel driver
SEE ALSOifconfig(1M), in.mpathd(1M), ip(7P), ip6(7P)
Jul 18, 2004 VNI(7D)
