Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:48:51 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <20100721.114851.200597269.davem@davemloft.net>
To: gregory.v.rose@intel.com
Cc: leedom@chelsio.com, shemminger@vyatta.com, andy@greyhouse.net,
        harald@redhat.com, bhutchings@solarflare.com, sassmann@redhat.com,
        netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, gospo@redhat.com,
        alexander.h.duyck@intel.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] sysfs: add entry to indicate network
 interfaces with random MAC address
From: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
In-Reply-To: <43F901BD926A4E43B106BF17856F0755F184620A@orsmsx508.amr.corp.intel.com>
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	<201007211129.48288.leedom@chelsio.com>
	<43F901BD926A4E43B106BF17856F0755F184620A@orsmsx508.amr.corp.intel.com>
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From: "Rose, Gregory V" <gregory.v.rose@intel.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:43:19 -0700

> Intel's view of things is that we don't use persistent MAC addresses
> in our VFs because the MAC address belongs to the VM and when it
> migrates it's going to want to use another VF with the same MAC
> address.  If they're persistent I'm wondering how that can be done.
> 
> This discussion has come about because some folks want to use the VF
> in the Host VMM.  The original design goal for Intel was that VFs
> would be assigned to VMs and that VMM vendors would want to assign
> MAC addresses with their own assigned OUI's.

If the VM itself is the "physical entity" of the system, the logical
conclusion I come to is that some kind of key should be obtained
through the VM to uniquely give the device a persistent MAC.

You could do things like have the PF controller use the root filesystem
ID label to construct the VF's MAC address, or something like that.
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