Physical network

The physical network type connects to an existing physical network, which can be a network interface or a bridge, and serves as an uplink network for OVN.

This network type allows to specify presets to use when connecting OVN networks to a parent interface or to allow an instance to use a physical interface as a NIC. In this case, the instance NICs can simply set the networkoption to the network they connect to without knowing any of the underlying configuration details.

Configuration options

The following configuration key namespaces are currently supported for the physical network type:

  • bgp (BGP peer configuration)

  • dns (DNS server and resolution configuration)

  • ipv4 (L3 IPv4 configuration)

  • ipv6 (L3 IPv6 configuration)

  • ovn (OVN configuration)

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

Note

Incus uses the CIDR notation where network subnet information is required, for example, 192.0.2.0/24 or 2001:db8::/32. This does not apply to cases where a single address is required, for example, local/remote addresses of tunnels, NAT addresses or specific addresses to apply to an instance.

The following configuration options are available for the physical network type:

Key

Type

Condition

Default

Description

gvrp

bool

-

false

Register VLAN using GARP VLAN Registration Protocol

mtu

integer

-

-

The MTU of the new interface

parent

string

-

-

Existing interface to use for network

vlan

integer

-

-

The VLAN ID to attach to

bgp.peers.NAME.address

string

BGP server

-

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

bgp.peers.NAME.asn

integer

BGP server

-

Peer AS number for use by ovn downstream networks

bgp.peers.NAME.password

string

BGP server

- (no password)

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

bgp.peers.NAME.holdtime

integer

BGP server

180

Peer session hold time (in seconds; optional)

dns.nameservers

string

standard mode

-

List of DNS server IPs on physical network

ipv4.gateway

string

standard mode

-

IPv4 address for the gateway and network (CIDR)

ipv4.ovn.ranges

string

-

-

Comma-separated 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

bool

IPv4 address

false

Allow the overlapping routes to be used on multiple networks/NIC at the same time

ipv6.gateway

string

standard mode

-

IPv6 address for the gateway and network (CIDR)

ipv6.ovn.ranges

string

-

-

Comma-separated 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

bool

IPv6 address

false

Allow the overlapping routes to be used on multiple networks/NIC at the same time

ovn.ingress_mode

string

standard mode

l2proxy

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

user.*

string

-

-

User-provided free-form key/value pairs

Supported features

The following features are supported for the physical network type: