[RFC proxmox{,-backup} 0/2] fix #7198: count veth uplink for PBS running in an LXC

[RFC proxmox{,-backup} 0/2] fix #7198: count veth uplink for PBS running in an LXC

[Jakob Klocker]

When PBS runs inside an LXC container, network traffic graphs stay
empty for interfaces with non-standard names (e.g. wan0, vxb01). The
reporter [0] observed that renaming to eth0 and restarting made data
appear.

The cause is in collect_netdev_stats(): an interface is recorded as
NetdevType::Physical only if is_physical() returns true. Inside a
container the uplink is one end of a veth pair (info_kind = "veth"), so
is_physical() returns false and the code falls back to
PHYSICAL_NIC_REGEX, which only matches conventional names. A standard
name like eth0 matches the regex and is counted; a custom name does 
not, so its stats are silently dropped. In a VM the guest NIC appears
as a normal hardware NIC without info_kind, which is why the VM case
works.

This series adds is_veth() to proxmox-network-api and gates the
collector on whether PBS runs in a container (checking
/run/systemd/container). 


RFC / open questions:

This patch fixes the reported single-uplink case, but in a container 
with several veths it counts all of them, including a veth enslaved to 
a bridge. In testing (see below) a bridge-enslaved veth was still 
counted. An alternative would be to count root-level interfaces without 
a master instead of matching veth, which would exclude enslaved 
interfaces and also generalise beyond veth.
Also this fix does not work if PBS is run in docker/podman,
since the interface is not a veth there (it was `tap` in podman).
LXC is the case that matters for PVE, so not covering podman/docker
seems acceptable to me.


Related, not fixed here:

NETWORK_INTERFACE_CACHE is a OnceLock populated once at proxy startup 
and never refreshed, so interfaces added or renamed after startup are 
not picked up until a restart. This matches the reporter's note that a
restart was required. It's pre-existing and independent of this fix.


Testing:

Reproduced in a PVE LXC running PBS with a custom-named veth uplink
("test"). Before: the interface produces no graph data. After: it is
counted. Verified via a temporary debug print in the collector that:

  * the custom-named veth uplink is counted,
  * a bridge (info_kind = bridge) is correctly excluded,
  * with multiple veths present, all veths are counted, including a
    bridge-enslaved one - the limitation noted above.

[0] https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7198


proxmox:

Jakob Klocker (1):
  network-api: add is_veth helper to IpLink

 proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs | 13 +++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)


proxmox-backup:

Jakob Klocker (1):
  fix #7198: metric collection: count veth uplink when running in a
    container

 src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs | 8 +++++++-
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)


Summary over all repositories:
  2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

-- 
Generated by murpp 0.12.0

[PATCH proxmox 1/2] network-api: add is_veth helper to IpLink

[Jakob Klocker]

Add a method to check whether an interface is one end of a veth pair
(info_kind = "veth"). This is used to identify a LXC container's network
uplink, which is a veth rather than a physical NIC and therefore is
not recognized by is_physical().

Signed-off-by: Jakob Klocker <j.klocker@proxmox.com>
---
 proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs | 13 +++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)

diff --git a/proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs b/proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs
index a9ae35fc..a13d6cc3 100644
--- a/proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs
+++ b/proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs
@@ -207,6 +207,19 @@ impl IpLink {
         PHYSICAL_NIC_REGEX.is_match(&self.ifname)
     }
 
+    /// Whether this is a `veth` (virtual ethernet) interface.
+    ///
+    /// Checks whether `info_kind` in `linkinfo` is set to `"veth"`. Inside an
+    /// LXC container, the uplink is one end of a veth pair rather than a physical
+    /// NIC, so this is used alongside [`is_physical`] to decide whether an
+    /// interface carries the machine's network traffic.
+    pub fn is_veth(&self) -> bool {
+        self.linkinfo
+            .as_ref()
+            .and_then(|li| li.info_kind.as_deref())
+            == Some("veth")
+    }
+
     /// The name of the interface (ifname / IFLA_IFNAME).
     pub fn name(&self) -> &str {
         &self.ifname
-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH proxmox-backup 2/2] fix #7198: metric collection: count veth uplink when running in a container

[Jakob Klocker]

When PBS runs inside an LXC container, the network uplink is one end of
a veth pair rather than a physical NIC, so is_physical() returns false
and the interface is excluded from network utilization stats unless its
name happens to match PHYSICAL_NIC_REGEX. This drops graph data for
interfaces with custom names (e.g. wan0).

Check whether we are running in a container (via /run/systemd/container,
cached in a OnceLock) and, if so, also count veth interfaces as physical
for metric collection. This mirrors how a VM's NIC is already counted.

Link: https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7198
Signed-off-by: Jakob Klocker <j.klocker@proxmox.com>
---
 src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs | 8 +++++++-
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs b/src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs
index 18625b1a5..47882eb89 100644
--- a/src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs
+++ b/src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs
@@ -148,6 +148,11 @@ impl NetdevStat {
 }
 
 static NETWORK_INTERFACE_CACHE: OnceLock<HashMap<String, IpLink>> = OnceLock::new();
+static IN_CONTAINER_CACHE: OnceLock<bool> = OnceLock::new();
+
+fn running_in_container() -> bool {
+    Path::new("/run/systemd/container").exists()
+}
 
 fn collect_netdev_stats() -> Option<Vec<NetdevStat>> {
     use proxmox_sys::linux::procfs::read_proc_net_dev;
@@ -175,10 +180,11 @@ fn collect_netdev_stats() -> Option<Vec<NetdevStat>> {
     };
 
     let mut stat_devs = Vec::with_capacity(net_devs.len());
+    let in_container = *IN_CONTAINER_CACHE.get_or_init(running_in_container);
 
     for net_dev in net_devs {
         if let Some(ip_link) = ip_links.get(&net_dev.device) {
-            let ty = if ip_link.is_physical() {
+            let ty = if ip_link.is_physical() || (in_container && ip_link.is_veth()) {
                 NetdevType::Physical
             } else {
                 NetdevType::Virtual
-- 
2.47.3

Re: [RFC proxmox{,-backup} 0/2] fix #7198: count veth uplink for PBS running in an LXC

[Gabriel Goller]

This seems a bit like a band-aid fix to me. Why do we not just get the uplink
interface via the default route: e.g. `ip -j route get 1.1.1.1 | jq .[0].dev`?

Re: [RFC proxmox{,-backup} 0/2] fix #7198: count veth uplink for PBS running in an LXC

[Fabian Grünbichler]

On July 7, 2026 2:14 pm, Gabriel Goller wrote:
> This seems a bit like a band-aid fix to me. Why do we not just get the uplink
> interface via the default route: e.g. `ip -j route get 1.1.1.1 | jq .[0].dev`?

there might be more than one relevant interface, that's why we are
counting "physical" interfaces here, and not just the default one used
as default uplink?

[RFC proxmox{,-backup} 0/2] fix #7198: count veth uplink for PBS running in an LXC

[Jakob Klocker]

When PBS runs inside an LXC container, network traffic graphs stay
empty for interfaces with non-standard names (e.g. wan0, vxb01). The
reporter [0] observed that renaming to eth0 and restarting made data
appear.

The cause is in collect_netdev_stats(): an interface is recorded as
NetdevType::Physical only if is_physical() returns true. Inside a
container the uplink is one end of a veth pair (info_kind = "veth"), so
is_physical() returns false and the code falls back to
PHYSICAL_NIC_REGEX, which only matches conventional names. A standard
name like eth0 matches the regex and is counted; a custom name does 
not, so its stats are silently dropped. In a VM the guest NIC appears
as a normal hardware NIC without info_kind, which is why the VM case
works.

This series adds is_veth() to proxmox-network-api and gates the
collector on whether PBS runs in a container (checking
/run/systemd/container). 


RFC / open questions:

This patch fixes the reported single-uplink case, but in a container 
with several veths it counts all of them, including a veth enslaved to 
a bridge. In testing (see below) a bridge-enslaved veth was still 
counted. An alternative would be to count root-level interfaces without 
a master instead of matching veth, which would exclude enslaved 
interfaces and also generalise beyond veth.
Also this fix does not work if PBS is run in docker/podman,
since the interface is not a veth there (it was `tap` in podman).
LXC is the case that matters for PVE, so not covering podman/docker
seems acceptable to me.


Related, not fixed here:

NETWORK_INTERFACE_CACHE is a OnceLock populated once at proxy startup 
and never refreshed, so interfaces added or renamed after startup are 
not picked up until a restart. This matches the reporter's note that a
restart was required. It's pre-existing and independent of this fix.


Testing:

Reproduced in a PVE LXC running PBS with a custom-named veth uplink
("test"). Before: the interface produces no graph data. After: it is
counted. Verified via a temporary debug print in the collector that:

  * the custom-named veth uplink is counted,
  * a bridge (info_kind = bridge) is correctly excluded,
  * with multiple veths present, all veths are counted, including a
    bridge-enslaved one - the limitation noted above.

[0] https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7198


proxmox:

Jakob Klocker (1):
  network-api: add is_veth helper to IpLink

 proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs | 13 +++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)


proxmox-backup:

Jakob Klocker (1):
  fix #7198: metric collection: count veth uplink when running in a
    container

 src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs | 8 +++++++-
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)


Summary over all repositories:
  2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

-- 
Generated by murpp 0.12.0

Re: [RFC proxmox{,-backup} 0/2] fix #7198: count veth uplink for PBS running in an LXC

[Jakob Klocker]

Sorry for the noise, this was meant for the PBS ML.

On 7/7/26 12:56 PM, Jakob Klocker wrote:
> When PBS runs inside an LXC container, network traffic graphs stay
> empty for interfaces with non-standard names (e.g. wan0, vxb01). The
> reporter [0] observed that renaming to eth0 and restarting made data
> appear.
> 
> The cause is in collect_netdev_stats(): an interface is recorded as
> NetdevType::Physical only if is_physical() returns true. Inside a
> container the uplink is one end of a veth pair (info_kind = "veth"), so
> is_physical() returns false and the code falls back to
> PHYSICAL_NIC_REGEX, which only matches conventional names. A standard
> name like eth0 matches the regex and is counted; a custom name does 
> not, so its stats are silently dropped. In a VM the guest NIC appears
> as a normal hardware NIC without info_kind, which is why the VM case
> works.
> 
> This series adds is_veth() to proxmox-network-api and gates the
> collector on whether PBS runs in a container (checking
> /run/systemd/container). 
> 
> 
> RFC / open questions:
> 
> This patch fixes the reported single-uplink case, but in a container 
> with several veths it counts all of them, including a veth enslaved to 
> a bridge. In testing (see below) a bridge-enslaved veth was still 
> counted. An alternative would be to count root-level interfaces without 
> a master instead of matching veth, which would exclude enslaved 
> interfaces and also generalise beyond veth.
> Also this fix does not work if PBS is run in docker/podman,
> since the interface is not a veth there (it was `tap` in podman).
> LXC is the case that matters for PVE, so not covering podman/docker
> seems acceptable to me.
> 
> 
> Related, not fixed here:
> 
> NETWORK_INTERFACE_CACHE is a OnceLock populated once at proxy startup 
> and never refreshed, so interfaces added or renamed after startup are 
> not picked up until a restart. This matches the reporter's note that a
> restart was required. It's pre-existing and independent of this fix.
> 
> 
> Testing:
> 
> Reproduced in a PVE LXC running PBS with a custom-named veth uplink
> ("test"). Before: the interface produces no graph data. After: it is
> counted. Verified via a temporary debug print in the collector that:
> 
>   * the custom-named veth uplink is counted,
>   * a bridge (info_kind = bridge) is correctly excluded,
>   * with multiple veths present, all veths are counted, including a
>     bridge-enslaved one - the limitation noted above.
> 
> [0] https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7198
> 
> 
> proxmox:
> 
> Jakob Klocker (1):
>   network-api: add is_veth helper to IpLink
> 
>  proxmox-network-api/src/config/helper.rs | 13 +++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)
> 
> 
> proxmox-backup:
> 
> Jakob Klocker (1):
>   fix #7198: metric collection: count veth uplink when running in a
>     container
> 
>  src/server/metric_collection/mod.rs | 8 +++++++-
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> 
> Summary over all repositories:
>   2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
>