direct user modifications, but using the GUI is still preferable, because it
protects you from errors.
-A 'vmbr' interface is needed to connect guests to the underlying physical
-network. They are a Linux bridge which can be thought of as a virtual switch
-to which the guests and physical interfaces are connected to. This section
-provides some examples on how the network can be set up to accomodate different
-use cases like redundancy with a xref:sysadmin_network_bond['bond'],
+A Linux bridge interface (commonly called 'vmbrX') is needed to connect guests
+to the underlying physical network. It can be thought of as a virtual switch
+which the guests and physical interfaces are connected to. This section provides
+some examples on how the network can be set up to accomodate different use cases
+like redundancy with a xref:sysadmin_network_bond['bond'],
xref:sysadmin_network_vlan['vlans'] or
xref:sysadmin_network_routed['routed'] and
xref:sysadmin_network_masquerading['NAT'] setups.
scheme is used for {pve} hosts which were installed before the 5.0
release. When upgrading to 5.0, the names are kept as-is.
-* Bridge names: `vmbr[N]`, where 0 ≤ N ≤ 4094 (`vmbr0` - `vmbr4094`)
+* Bridge names: Commonly `vmbr[N]`, where 0 ≤ N ≤ 4094 (`vmbr0` - `vmbr4094`),
+but you can use any alphanumeric string that starts with a character and is at
+most 10 characters long.
* Bonds: `bond[N]`, where 0 ≤ N (`bond0`, `bond1`, ...)
To assign a name to a particular network device, you need a way to uniquely and
permanently identify that device in the `[Match]` section. One possibility is
to match the device's MAC address using the `MACAddress` option, as it is
-unlikely to change. Then, you can assign a name using the `Name` option in the
-`[Link]` section.
+unlikely to change.
-For example, to assign the name `enwan0` to the device with MAC address
-`aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff`, create a file `/etc/systemd/network/10-enwan0.link` with
-the following contents:
+The `[Match]` section should also contain a `Type` option to make sure it only
+matches the expected physical interface, and not bridge/bond/VLAN interfaces
+with the same MAC address. In most setups, `Type` should be set to `ether` to
+match only Ethernet devices, but some setups may require other choices. See the
+https://manpages.debian.org/stable/udev/systemd.link.5.en.html[systemd.link(5)
+manpage] for more details.
+
+Then, you can assign a name using the `Name` option in the `[Link]` section.
+
+For example, to assign the name `enwan0` to the Ethernet device with MAC
+address `aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff`, create a file
+`/etc/systemd/network/10-enwan0.link` with the following contents:
----
[Match]
MACAddress=aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff
+Type=ether
[Link]
Name=enwan0