System Administration Guide: Network Interfaces and Network Virtualization

Best Uses for a Private Virtual Network

Consider creating a private virtual network for a host that is used in a development environment. Using the etherstub framework, you can totally isolate software or features under development to the containers of the private network. Moreover, you can use firewalling software for network address translation of outgoing packets that originate in the containers of the private network. The private network is a smaller version of the eventual deployment environment.