Hide navigation sidebar
Hide table of contents sidebar
Back to top
Toggle table of contents sidebar

# 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 `network`option 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:

- How to configure Incus as a BGP server