Networking UML using bridging

Archived content - preserved for historical purposes.

This HOWTO covers connecting User-mode Linux sessions to a physical network by means of the 802.1d Ethernet bridging support available in the Linux kernel. Networking UML sessions in this way enables them to appear and behave as if they were a part of the real LAN.

This document was first published some time in 2003 or 2004. User-mode Linux existed in a world before modern virtualisation options such as VMware, Xen, KVM and QEMU. As a student I was interested in the security benefits of isolating users or network services.

The document is available to download in PDF format.

The document was cited by a number of online tutorials, and featured in a Linux Journal article “Running Network Services under User-Mode Linux, Part III”.