Simulate Link down to Linux guests

[Jermey]

Hi all,

I would like to programmatically make a Linux guest think that a link is up or down using the VBox API. I tried changing the cableConnected property. The net effect of this is from within the Linux guest, the link is still reported UP (i.e. using "ifconfig"), but traffic does stop. I would like Linux to report that the link is actually down; which would then cause other processes, such as routing and LLDP, to react accordingly.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My host environment is Mac OS X, running VBox 5.0. I am programming in Python.

Thank you!!

Cheers,
-- Jeremy

[noteirak]

Working fine on my end (in Java). Could you put a standalone code sample to illustrate your problem please?

[Jermey]

Hi notelrak,

I was using the Virtual Box Manager (GUI) to simply change the cable connected state to "off". Once I did that I looked at the Linux ifconfig command and still saw the eth0 reporting link UP. So I didn't do this in programming just yet; I wanted to verify that actually changing the cable connected state had the desired effect.

I'll retest this since you've got this working on your system. Could you please let me know which version of Linux guest you are using; i.e. Ubuntu, Debian, version/etc.

Thank you!
-- Jeremy

[noteirak]

I also did it with the GUI manager first before testing with code. So we have different results. I tried on a Lubuntu 14.02 LTS install (nothing fancy, default install settings)

[Jermey]

Hi noteirak,

I just retested using my Python code, and it does in fact work. My apologies, I must have had something erroneous in my test environment.

Cheers,
-- Jeremy