Provided by: systemd_229-4ubuntu21.31_amd64 
NAME
systemd.netdev - Virtual Network Device configuration
SYNOPSIS
netdev.netdev
DESCRIPTION
Network setup is performed by systemd-networkd(8).
Virtual Network Device files must have the extension .netdev; other extensions are ignored. Virtual
network devices are created as soon as networkd is started. If a netdev with the specified name already
exists, networkd will use that as-is rather than create its own. Note that the settings of the
pre-existing netdev will not be changed by networkd.
The .netdev files are read from the files located in the system network directory /lib/systemd/network,
the volatile runtime network directory /run/systemd/network and the local administration network
directory /etc/systemd/network. All configuration files are collectively sorted and processed in lexical
order, regardless of the directories in which they live. However, files with identical filenames replace
each other. Files in /etc have the highest priority, files in /run take precedence over files with the
same name in /lib. This can be used to override a system-supplied configuration file with a local file if
needed. As a special case, an empty file (file size 0) or symlink with the same name pointing to
/dev/null disables the configuration file entirely (it is "masked").
SUPPORTED NETDEV KINDS
The following kinds of virtual network devices may be configured in .netdev files:
Table 1. Supported kinds of virtual network devices
┌──────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│Kind │ Description │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│bond │ A bond device is an aggregation of │
│ │ all its slave devices. See Linux │
│ │ Ethernet Bonding Driver HOWTO[1] for │
│ │ details.Local configuration │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│bridge │ A bridge device is a software switch, │
│ │ and each of its slave devices and the │
│ │ bridge itself are ports of the │
│ │ switch. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│dummy │ A dummy device drops all packets sent │
│ │ to it. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│gre │ A Level 3 GRE tunnel over IPv4. See │
│ │ RFC 2784[2] for details. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│gretap │ A Level 2 GRE tunnel over IPv4. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ip6gre │ A Level 3 GRE tunnel over IPv6. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ip6tnl │ An IPv4 or IPv6 tunnel over IPv6 │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ip6gretap │ An Level 2 GRE tunnel over IPv6. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ipip │ An IPv4 over IPv4 tunnel. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ipvlan │ An ipvlan device is a stacked device │
│ │ which receives packets from its │
│ │ underlying device based on IP address │
│ │ filtering. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│macvlan │ A macvlan device is a stacked device │
│ │ which receives packets from its │
│ │ underlying device based on MAC │
│ │ address filtering. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│macvtap │ A macvtap device is a stacked device │
│ │ which receives packets from its │
│ │ underlying device based on MAC │
│ │ address filtering. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│sit │ An IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│tap │ A persistent Level 2 tunnel between a │
│ │ network device and a device node. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│tun │ A persistent Level 3 tunnel between a │
│ │ network device and a device node. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│veth │ An Ethernet tunnel between a pair of │
│ │ network devices. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│vlan │ A VLAN is a stacked device which │
│ │ receives packets from its underlying │
│ │ device based on VLAN tagging. See │
│ │ IEEE 802.1Q[3] for details. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│vti │ An IPv4 over IPSec tunnel. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│vti6 │ An IPv6 over IPSec tunnel. │
├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│vxlan │ A virtual extensible LAN (vxlan), for │
│ │ connecting Cloud computing │
│ │ deployments. │
└──────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
[MATCH] SECTION OPTIONS
A virtual network device is only created if the "[Match]" section matches the current environment, or if
the section is empty. The following keys are accepted:
Host=
Matches against the hostname or machine ID of the host. See "ConditionHost=" in systemd.unit(5) for
details.
Virtualization=
Checks whether the system is executed in a virtualized environment and optionally test whether it is
a specific implementation. See "ConditionVirtualization=" in systemd.unit(5) for details.
KernelCommandLine=
Checks whether a specific kernel command line option is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark
unset). See "ConditionKernelCommandLine=" in systemd.unit(5) for details.
Architecture=
Checks whether the system is running on a specific architecture. See "ConditionArchitecture=" in
systemd.unit(5) for details.
[NETDEV] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[NetDev]" section accepts the following keys:
Description=
A free-form description of the netdev.
Name=
The interface name used when creating the netdev. This option is compulsory.
Kind=
The netdev kind. This option is compulsory. See the "Supported netdev kinds" section for the valid
keys.
MTUBytes=
The maximum transmission unit in bytes to set for the device. The usual suffixes K, M, G, are
supported and are understood to the base of 1024. This key is not currently supported for "tun" or
"tap" devices.
MACAddress=
The MAC address to use for the device. If none is given, one is generated based on the interface name
and the machine-id(5). This key is not currently supported for "tun" or "tap" devices.
[BRIDGE] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[Bridge]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "bridge", and accepts the following keys:
HelloTimeSec=
HelloTimeSec specifies the number of seconds between two hello packets sent out by the root bridge
and the designated bridges. Hello packets are used to communicate information about the topology
throughout the entire bridged local area network.
MaxAgeSec=
MaxAgeSec specifies the number of seconds of maximum message age. If the last seen (received) hello
packet is more than this number of seconds old, the bridge in question will start the takeover
procedure in attempt to become the Root Bridge itself.
ForwardDelaySec=
ForwardDelaySec specifies the number of seconds spent in each of the Listening and Learning states
before the Forwarding state is entered.
AgeingTimeSec=
This specifies the number of seconds a MAC Address will be kept in the forwaring database after
having a packet received from this MAC Address.
Priority=
The priority of the bridge. An integer between 0 and 65535. A lower value means higher priority. The
bridge having the lowest priority will be elected as root bridge.
DefaultPVID=
This specifies the default port VLAN ID of a newly attached bridge port.
STP=
A boolean. This enables the bridge's Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). When unset, the kernel's default
setting applies.
[VLAN] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[VLAN]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "vlan", and accepts the following key:
Id=
The VLAN ID to use. An integer in the range 0–4094. This option is compulsory.
[MACVLAN] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[MACVLAN]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "macvlan", and accepts the following key:
Mode=
The MACVLAN mode to use. The supported options are "private", "vepa", "bridge", and "passthru".
[MACVTAP] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[MACVTAP]" section applies for netdevs of kind "macvtap" and accepts the same key as "[MACVLAN]."
[IPVLAN] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[IPVLAN]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "ipvlan", and accepts the following key:
Mode=
The IPVLAN mode to use. The supported options are "L2" and "L3".
[VXLAN] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[VXLAN]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "vxlan", and accepts the following keys:
Id=
The VXLAN ID to use.
Group=
An assigned multicast group IP address.
TOS=
The Type Of Service byte value for a vxlan interface.
TTL=
A fixed Time To Live N on Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network packets. N is a number in the range
1–255. 0 is a special value meaning that packets inherit the TTL value.
MacLearning=
A boolean. When true, enables dynamic MAC learning to discover remote MAC addresses.
FDBAgeingSec=
The lifetime of Forwarding Database entry learnt by the kernel, in seconds.
MaximumFDBEntries=
Configures maximum number of FDB entries.
ARPProxy=
A boolean. When true, enables ARP proxying.
L2MissNotification=
A boolean. When true, enables netlink LLADDR miss notifications.
L3MissNotification=
A boolean. When true, enables netlink IP address miss notifications.
RouteShortCircuit=
A boolean. When true, route short circuiting is turned on.
UDPCheckSum=
A boolean. When true, transmitting UDP checksums when doing VXLAN/IPv4 is turned on.
UDP6ZeroChecksumTx=
A boolean. When true, sending zero checksums in VXLAN/IPv6 is turned on.
UDP6ZeroCheckSumRx=
A boolean. When true, receiving zero checksums in VXLAN/IPv6 is turned on.
GroupPolicyExtension=
A boolean. When true, it enables Group Policy VXLAN extension security label mechanism across network
peers based on VXLAN. For details about the Group Policy VXLAN, see the VXLAN Group Policy[4]
document. Defaults to false.
DestinationPort=
Configures the default destination UDP port on a per-device basis. If destination port is not
specified then Linux kernel default will be used. Set destination port 4789 to get the IANA assigned
value, and destination port 0 to get default values.
PortRange=
Configures VXLAN port range. VXLAN bases source UDP port based on flow to help the receiver to be
able to load balance based on outer header flow. It restricts the port range to the normal UDP local
ports, and allows overriding via configuration.
[TUNNEL] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[Tunnel]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "ipip", "sit", "gre", "gretap", "ip6gre",
"ip6gretap", "vti", "vti6", and "ip6tnl" and accepts the following keys:
Local=
A static local address for tunneled packets. It must be an address on another interface of this host.
Remote=
The remote endpoint of the tunnel.
TOS=
The Type Of Service byte value for a tunnel interface. For details about the TOS, see the Type of
Service in the Internet Protocol Suite[5] document.
TTL=
A fixed Time To Live N on tunneled packets. N is a number in the range 1–255. 0 is a special value
meaning that packets inherit the TTL value. The default value for IPv4 tunnels is: inherit. The
default value for IPv6 tunnels is 64.
DiscoverPathMTU=
A boolean. When true, enables Path MTU Discovery on the tunnel.
IPv6FlowLabel=
Configures the 20-bit flow label (see RFC 6437[6]) field in the IPv6 header (see RFC 2460[7]), which
is used by a node to label packets of a flow. It is only used for IPv6 tunnels. A flow label of zero
is used to indicate packets that have not been labeled. It can be configured to a value in the range
0–0xFFFFF, or be set to "inherit", in which case the original flowlabel is used.
CopyDSCP=
A boolean. When true, the Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) field will be copied to the inner
header from outer header during the decapsulation of an IPv6 tunnel packet. DSCP is a field in an IP
packet that enables different levels of service to be assigned to network traffic. Defaults to "no".
EncapsulationLimit=
The Tunnel Encapsulation Limit option specifies how many additional levels of encapsulation are
permitted to be prepended to the packet. For example, a Tunnel Encapsulation Limit option containing
a limit value of zero means that a packet carrying that option may not enter another tunnel before
exiting the current tunnel. (see RFC 2473[8]). The valid range is 0–255 and "none". Defaults to 4.
Mode=
An "ip6tnl" tunnel can be in one of three modes "ip6ip6" for IPv6 over IPv6, "ipip6" for IPv4 over
IPv6 or "any" for either.
[PEER] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[Peer]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "veth" and accepts the following keys:
Name=
The interface name used when creating the netdev. This option is compulsory.
MACAddress=
The peer MACAddress, if not set, it is generated in the same way as the MAC address of the main
interface.
[TUN] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[Tun]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "tun", and accepts the following keys:
OneQueue=
Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether all packets are queued at the device (enabled), or a
fixed number of packets are queued at the device and the rest at the "qdisc". Defaults to "no".
MultiQueue=
Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether to use multiple file descriptors (queues) to parallelize
packets sending and receiving. Defaults to "no".
PacketInfo=
Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether packets should be prepended with four extra bytes (two
flag bytes and two protocol bytes). If disabled, it indicates that the packets will be pure IP
packets. Defaults to "no".
VNetHeader=
Takes a boolean argument. Configures IFF_VNET_HDR flag for a tap device. It allows sending and
receiving larger Generic Segmentation Offload (GSO) packets. This may increase throughput
significantly. Defaults to "no".
User=
User to grant access to the /dev/net/tun device.
Group=
Group to grant access to the /dev/net/tun device.
[TAP] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[Tap]" section only applies for netdevs of kind "tap", and accepts the same keys as the "[Tun]"
section.
[BOND] SECTION OPTIONS
The "[Bond]" section accepts the following key:
Mode=
Specifies one of the bonding policies. The default is "balance-rr" (round robin). Possible values are
"balance-rr", "active-backup", "balance-xor", "broadcast", "802.3ad", "balance-tlb", and
"balance-alb".
TransmitHashPolicy=
Selects the transmit hash policy to use for slave selection in balance-xor, 802.3ad, and tlb modes.
Possible values are "layer2", "layer3+4", "layer2+3", "encap2+3", "802.3ad", and "encap3+4".
LACPTransmitRate=
Specifies the rate with which link partner transmits Link Aggregation Control Protocol Data Unit
packets in 802.3ad mode. Possible values are "slow", which requests partner to transmit LACPDUs every
30 seconds, and "fast", which requests partner to transmit LACPDUs every second. The default value is
"slow".
MIIMonitorSec=
Specifies the frequency that Media Independent Interface link monitoring will occur. A value of zero
disables MII link monitoring. This value is rounded down to the nearest millisecond. The default
value is 0.
UpDelaySec=
Specifies the delay before a link is enabled after a link up status has been detected. This value is
rounded down to a multiple of MIIMonitorSec. The default value is 0.
DownDelaySec=
Specifies the delay before a link is disabled after a link down status has been detected. This value
is rounded down to a multiple of MIIMonitorSec. The default value is 0.
LearnPacketIntervalSec=
Specifies the number of seconds between instances where the bonding driver sends learning packets to
each slave peer switch. The valid range is 1–0x7fffffff; the default value is 1. This option has an
effect only for the balance-tlb and balance-alb modes.
AdSelect=
Specifies the 802.3ad aggregation selection logic to use. Possible values are "stable", "bandwidth"
and "count".
FailOverMACPolicy=
Specifies whether the active-backup mode should set all slaves to the same MAC address at the time of
enslavement or, when enabled, to perform special handling of the bond's MAC address in accordance
with the selected policy. The default policy is none. Possible values are "none", "active" and
"follow".
ARPValidate=
Specifies whether or not ARP probes and replies should be validated in any mode that supports ARP
monitoring, or whether non-ARP traffic should be filtered (disregarded) for link monitoring purposes.
Possible values are "none", "active", "backup" and "all".
ARPIntervalSec=
Specifies the ARP link monitoring frequency in milliseconds. A value of 0 disables ARP monitoring.
The default value is 0.
ARPIPTargets=
Specifies the IP addresses to use as ARP monitoring peers when ARPIntervalSec is greater than 0.
These are the targets of the ARP request sent to determine the health of the link to the targets.
Specify these values in IPv4 dotted decimal format. At least one IP address must be given for ARP
monitoring to function. The maximum number of targets that can be specified is 16. The default value
is no IP addresses.
ARPAllTargets=
Specifies the quantity of ARPIPTargets that must be reachable in order for the ARP monitor to
consider a slave as being up. This option affects only active-backup mode for slaves with ARPValidate
enabled. Possible values are "any" and "all".
PrimaryReselectPolicy=
Specifies the reselection policy for the primary slave. This affects how the primary slave is chosen
to become the active slave when failure of the active slave or recovery of the primary slave occurs.
This option is designed to prevent flip-flopping between the primary slave and other slaves. Possible
values are "always", "better" and "failure".
ResendIGMP=
Specifies the number of IGMP membership reports to be issued after a failover event. One membership
report is issued immediately after the failover, subsequent packets are sent in each 200ms interval.
The valid range is 0–255. Defaults to 1. A value of 0 prevents the IGMP membership report from being
issued in response to the failover event.
PacketsPerSlave=
Specify the number of packets to transmit through a slave before moving to the next one. When set to
0, then a slave is chosen at random. The valid range is 0–65535. Defaults to 1. This option only has
effect when in balance-rr mode.
GratuitousARP=
Specify the number of peer notifications (gratuitous ARPs and unsolicited IPv6 Neighbor
Advertisements) to be issued after a failover event. As soon as the link is up on the new slave, a
peer notification is sent on the bonding device and each VLAN sub-device. This is repeated at each
link monitor interval (ARPIntervalSec or MIIMonitorSec, whichever is active) if the number is greater
than 1. The valid range is 0–255. The default value is 1. These options affect only the active-backup
mode.
AllSlavesActive=
A boolean. Specifies that duplicate frames (received on inactive ports) should be dropped when false,
or delivered when true. Normally, bonding will drop duplicate frames (received on inactive ports),
which is desirable for most users. But there are some times it is nice to allow duplicate frames to
be delivered. The default value is false (drop duplicate frames received on inactive ports).
MinLinks=
Specifies the minimum number of links that must be active before asserting carrier. The default value
is 0.
ActiveSlave=
A boolean. Specifies the new active slave. The "ActiveSlave=" option is only valid for following
modes: "active-backup", "balance-alb" and "balance-tlb". Defaults to false.
PrimarySlave=
A boolean. Specifies which slave is the primary device. The specified device will always be the
active slave while it is available. Only when the primary is off-line will alternate devices be used.
This is useful when one slave is preferred over another, e.g. when one slave has higher throughput
than another. The "PrimarySlave=" option is only valid for following modes: "active-backup",
"balance-alb" and "balance-tlb". Defaults to false.
For more detail information see Linux Ethernet Bonding Driver HOWTO[1]
EXAMPLE
Example 1. /etc/systemd/network/25-bridge.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=bridge0
Kind=bridge
Example 2. /etc/systemd/network/25-vlan1.netdev
[Match]
Virtualization=no
[NetDev]
Name=vlan1
Kind=vlan
[VLAN]
Id=1
Example 3. /etc/systemd/network/25-ipip.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=ipip-tun
Kind=ipip
MTUBytes=1480
[Tunnel]
Local=192.168.223.238
Remote=192.169.224.239
TTL=64
Example 4. /etc/systemd/network/25-tap.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=tap-test
Kind=tap
[Tap]
MultiQueue=true
PacketInfo=true
Example 5. /etc/systemd/network/25-sit.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=sit-tun
Kind=sit
MTUBytes=1480
[Tunnel]
Local=10.65.223.238
Remote=10.65.223.239
Example 6. /etc/systemd/network/25-gre.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=gre-tun
Kind=gre
MTUBytes=1480
[Tunnel]
Local=10.65.223.238
Remote=10.65.223.239
Example 7. /etc/systemd/network/25-vti.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=vti-tun
Kind=vti
MTUBytes=1480
[Tunnel]
Local=10.65.223.238
Remote=10.65.223.239
Example 8. /etc/systemd/network/25-veth.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=veth-test
Kind=veth
[Peer]
Name=veth-peer
Example 9. /etc/systemd/network/25-bond.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=bond1
Kind=bond
[Bond]
Mode=802.3ad
TransmitHashPolicy=layer3+4
MIIMonitorSec=1s
LACPTransmitRate=fast
Example 10. /etc/systemd/network/25-dummy.netdev
[NetDev]
Name=dummy-test
Kind=dummy
MACAddress=12:34:56:78:9a:bc
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), systemd-networkd(8), systemd.link(5), systemd.network(5)
NOTES
1. Linux Ethernet Bonding Driver HOWTO
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/bonding.txt
2. RFC 2784
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2784
3. IEEE 802.1Q
http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/802.1Q.html
4. VXLAN Group Policy
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-smith-vxlan-group-policy
5. Type of Service in the Internet Protocol Suite
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1349
6. RFC 6437
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6437
7. RFC 2460
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2460
8. RFC 2473
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2473#section-4.1.1