vni(7d) 							      Devices								   vni(7d)

NAME

       vni - 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
       Interface dlpi(7P) Style 2. Note that DLPI is intended to interact with IP, meaning that DLPI access to applications is not supported. (For
       example, 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 identifies
       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 pos-
       sible.

       The  vni  pseudo  device  is  particularly  useful in hosting an IP address when used in conjunction with the 'usesrc' ifconfig option (see
       ifconfig(1M) for examples).  The logical instances of the device can also be used to host addresses as an alternative to hosting them  over
       the loopback interface.

       Multicast  is not supported on this device. More specifically, the following options return an error when used with an address specified on
       vni: IP_MULTICAST_IF, IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP, IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP, IPV6_MULTICAST_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 physical interfaces and tunnels. Because applications that deal with packet
       transmission  and  reception  (such  as packet filters) cannot filter traffic on virtual interfaces, you cannot set up a packet filter on a
       virtual interface. Instead, you should configure the policy rules to apply to the physical interfaces and tunnels, and  if  necessary,  use
       the virtual IP addresses themselves as part of the rule configuration. Also, note that the virtual interface cannot be part of an IP multi-
       pathing (IPMP) group.

FILES

       /dev/vni    64-bit ELF kernel driver

SEE ALSO

       ifconfig(1M), in.mpathd(1M), ip(7P), ip6(7P)

SunOS 5.11							   18 July 2004 							   vni(7d)