[SOLVED] What are all interfaces used for?

[LooneyTunes]

Hi,

I discovered to me "unknown" mac addresses on my router, and traced them to proxmox. Doing a `ip a` in pve console gives me a long list of interfaces (~10-ish). How can I figure out what they are actually used for? Also, is it possible to disable IPv6?

Thanks

 

[Lorenz.S]

Hi,

Most of these interfaces are likely PVE internal interfaces. For example, vmbr* are your configured bridges, fw* belong to the PVE firewall, and tap<vmid>i<nr> belong to each VM interface respectively. Do not mess with these interfaces, as they are completely managed by the PVE. Because this are all internal interfaces, the listed MAC addresses should not be visible from or to outside network devices.

The MAC addresses of your VMs can be configured by GUI under the "Hardware" tab, perhaps there you can find your unknown addresses.

What exactly do you mean by "disabling IPv6"? You can disable IPv6 on each VM and simply don't configure an IPv6 address on the PVE, if you really want to do so.

 

[LooneyTunes]

the listed MAC addresses should not be visible from or to outside network devices.

Thank you for prompt and informative answer! The reason for posting was as mentioned, that one of these were for a while picked up by my router. It were not assigned an IP, and it disappeared after a while, so probably as you say, in good working order.

What exactly do you mean by "disabling IPv6"?

Well, it was related to the other interfaces really. They seemed to have IPv6 addresses/mac addresses, so figured if I disabled IPv6, I'd get rid of them, but now I know they're supposed to be there and have a better understanding what they do.

Thanks