IPvlan Network Driver: Overview and Options

--- title: IPvlan network driver description: All about using IPvlan to make your containers appear like physical machines on the network keywords: network, ipvlan, l2, l3, standalone aliases: - /network/ipvlan/ - /network/drivers/ipvlan/ --- The IPvlan driver gives users total control over both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing. The VLAN driver builds on top of that in giving operators complete control of layer 2 VLAN tagging and even IPvlan L3 routing for users interested in underlay network integration. For overlay deployments that abstract away physical constraints see the [multi-host overlay](/manuals/engine/network/tutorials/overlay.md) driver. IPvlan is a new twist on the tried and true network virtualization technique. The Linux implementations are extremely lightweight because rather than using the traditional Linux bridge for isolation, they are associated to a Linux Ethernet interface or sub-interface to enforce separation between networks and connectivity to the physical network. IPvlan offers a number of unique features and plenty of room for further innovations with the various modes. Two high level advantages of these approaches are, the positive performance implications of bypassing the Linux bridge and the simplicity of having fewer moving parts. Removing the bridge that traditionally resides in between the Docker host NIC and container interface leaves a simple setup consisting of container interfaces, attached directly to the Docker host interface. This result is easy to access for external facing services as there is no need for port mappings in these scenarios. ## Options The following table describes the driver-specific options that you can pass to `--opt` when creating a network using the `ipvlan` driver. | Option | Default | Description | | ------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `ipvlan_mode` | `l2` | Sets the IPvlan operating mode. Can be one of: `l2`, `l3`, `l3s` | | `ipvlan_flag` | `bridge` | Sets the IPvlan mode flag. Can be one of: `bridge`, `private`, `vepa` | | `parent` | | Specifies the parent interface to use. | ## Examples ### Prerequisites - The examples on this page are all single host. - All examples can be performed on a single host running Docker. Any example using a sub-interface like `eth0.10` can be replaced with `eth0` or any other valid parent interface on the Docker host. Sub-interfaces with a `.` are created on the fly. `-o parent` interfaces can also be left out of the `docker network create` all together and the driver will create a `dummy` interface that will enable local host connectivity to perform the examples. - Kernel requirements: - IPvlan Linux kernel v4.2+ (support for earlier kernels exists but is buggy). To check your current kernel version, use `uname -r` ### IPvlan L2 mode example usage An example of the IPvlan `L2` mode topology is shown in the following image. The driver is specified with `-d driver_name` option. In this case `-d ipvlan`.

The IPvlan driver offers fine-grained control over IPv4/IPv6 addressing, layer 2 VLAN tagging, and IPvlan L3 routing, providing lightweight network virtualization by associating container interfaces directly with the Docker host's Ethernet interface. This bypasses the Linux bridge, improving performance and simplifying access to external services. The driver-specific options `ipvlan_mode`, `ipvlan_flag`, and `parent` can be configured when creating a network. Examples with prerequisites and kernel requirements are also provided.