It is possible to assign static IP addresses to virtual machines (VMs) running on a Linux system using the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization system and the libvirt API. This can be done by configuring a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server on the host system and specifying the static IP addresses in the DHCP configuration.
Here are the general steps to assign static IP addresses to VMs using DHCP on a KVM/libvirt system:
Install and configure a DHCP server: You will need to install and configure a DHCP server on the host system. There are several options for DHCP servers on Linux, including ISC DHCP, dnsmasq, and dhcpd. You will need to specify the IP range and subnet mask for the virtual network, as well as the static IP addresses for each VM.
Configure the virtual network: In libvirt, the virtual network is defined in an XML configuration file. You will need to edit this file to specify the DHCP server and the IP range for the virtual network.
Assign the static IP addresses to the VMs: In the libvirt configuration for each VM, you will need to specify the static IP address that you want the VM to use. You can do this by adding a "dhcp" element to the VM's XML configuration, with the "mac" attribute set to the MAC address of the VM's virtual network interface and the "ip" attribute set to the static IP address.
Restart the virtualization system: After making the necessary configuration changes, you will need to restart the virtualization service or daemon to apply the changes. For example, you may need to run the "systemctl restart libvirtd" command to restart the libvirt daemon.
Test the configuration: After making the changes, you should test the configuration to ensure that the VMs are using the correct static IP addresses. You can do this by checking the IP addresses of the VMs using the "ip a" command or by attempting to connect to the VMs from other systems on the virtual network.
It is generally a good idea to make a backup of your virtualization configuration before making any changes, in case you need to restore it later. If you encounter any problems while configuring static IP addresses for VMs using DHCP, you may need to seek help from the Linux KVM community or your Linux distribution's support resources.