IP not visible for Ubuntu VM with avahi/zeroconf network interface

[iztokp]

I cannot get IP for avahi/zeroconf network interface on my Hyper-V host.

VM is Ubuntu with latest Linux virtual tools :

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
Release:        16.04
Codename:       xenial

linux-cloud-tools-virtual/xenial-updates,now 4.4.0.135.141 amd64 [installed,automatic]
linux-cloud-tools-virtual-lts-xenial/xenial-updates,now 4.4.0.135.141 amd64 [installed]
linux-tools-virtual/xenial-updates,now 4.4.0.135.141 amd64 [installed,automatic]
linux-tools-virtual-lts-xenial/xenial-updates,now 4.4.0.135.141 amd64 [installed]

Hyper-V Manager network settings for the VM:

Output trying to get IP using PowerShell:

MacAddress   IPAddresses
----------   -----------
00155DCC89B1 {}
00155DCC89B2 {10.61.80.62, fe80::215:5dff:fecc:89b2}

Output of ifconfg on the Ubuntu VM:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:15:5d:cc:89:b1
          inet6 addr: fe80::215:5dff:fecc:89b1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:167 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:147 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:36283 (36.2 KB)  TX bytes:34506 (34.5 KB)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:15:5d:cc:89:b2
          inet addr:10.61.80.62  Bcast:10.61.83.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::215:5dff:fecc:89b2/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:491061 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2904 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:29717778 (29.7 MB)  TX bytes:3522445 (3.5 MB)

eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:15:5d:cc:89:b1
          inet addr:169.254.9.205  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:165 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:165 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
          RX bytes:12085 (12.0 KB)  TX bytes:12085 (12.0 KB)

I can see IPs for eth0: network interface, but not for eth0:avahi:.

[iztokp]

I get the same result (no IP address) also with Linux CentOS guest VM.

[dcui]

I think this is the by-design behavior: “eth0:avahi” is just an IP alias of “eth0”, meaning, from the host’s perspective, it’s not a NIC device.
For IP-aliasing, please refer to https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/networking/alias.html.

That said, it’s possible to report the alias’s IP in the real NIC’s IP address list, because the host asks the guest for the NIC’s IPs by specifying the MAC address.