Disable kvm dnsmasq and force VMs to get IP address from DSL router

Linux
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1

Hello Community

i have just added a KVM linux host to my home network in preparing for the Rhcsa. This is a dell power edge 610 in my basement rack. On this I have 3 linux VMs. They were issued this weird 192.168.122.0/24 IP address because of Libvirt and Dnsmasq.

I also have other linux and Windows workstation connected on the same network. They are all hardwired to a netgear switch which goes to the DSL modem.

Accessing the VMs directly from the Host in the basement, I can ping other workstation with no issues. However if I move to another workstation, I can ping the host, but not the VMs.

I can see the VMs are in a different sub-net as my other workstation and this is because of the libvirt and dnsmasq.

How can I disable this dnsmasq and force the VMs to acquire IP address settings from my DSL router?

Is this even possible to do without messing up the VMs

2

If you don’t want to mess up with VM ip address, set up NAT. The procedure is simple:

  1. Change DHCP range and make room for static IP (see https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-kvm-libvirt-dnsmasq-dhcp-static-ip-address-configuration-for-guest-os/ )
  2. Assign a static IP to your VM and reboot
  3. Set up NAT on host (see https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/kvm-forward-ports-to-guests-vm-with-ufw-on-linux/)

It is a bit complicated but doable.

Getting an IP from DSL router

Another option is to define br0 bridge with your LAN (see https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rhel-linux-kvm-virtualization-bridged-networking-with-libvirt/) . Once done set up br0 to VM using virsh and now you can get IP directly from your DSL router. To do this, shutdown the vm and run:

virsh edit --domain {vm-name-here}

Look for bridge type, say:

    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:36:ec:cf'/>
      <source bridge='virbr0'/>
      <model type='virtio'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>

Change virbr0 (which is the default for you) to br0:

      <model type='br0'/>

Save and close the file. Restart services and start vm.