[kwlug-disc] Multiple NICs on Ubuntu Server 14.04

[CrankyOldBugger]

Sorry, but I have a N00b question...

I have a server running Ubuntu Server 14.04 (CLI interface, of course).
 This box has two NIC cards.

$ lspci | egrep -i --color 'network|ethernet'
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 03)
03:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8169 PCI
Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)

At this point in time only one NIC is actively used:

$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 1c:6f:65:41:ed:0f
          inet addr:10.42.1.40  Bcast:10.42.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::1e6f:65ff:fe41:ed0f/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:147 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:127 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:16898 (16.8 KB)  TX bytes:18191 (18.1 KB)

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:185 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:185 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:30219 (30.2 KB)  TX bytes:30219 (30.2 KB)

virbr0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr ca:e3:65:49:dc:e4
          inet addr:192.168.122.1  Bcast:192.168.122.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


Don't ask me why virbr0 is there.  (Google tells me it's there because I
started tinkering with KVM at some point but I never finished the task.)  I
deleted it but it reappears after each reboot.  And it's not using the same
subnet as the rest of the network.  But that's not the point of this email..

I want to start building virtual machines on this box, but before I do I
would like to see the server using both NIC cards appropriately.  By that I
mean it will share the load between any future VMs between the two NICs, or
at least reserve one NIC for the host server and one NIC for the VMs.

(I'm ashamed to say this is much easier in MS Hyper-V, but I would much
rather learn how to do this in Linux CLI!)

So I guess my question is two-fold:

a) how do I tame my NICs in preparation for setting up VMs, and
b) what's the preferred method for setting up VMs in Ubuntu Server?  Does
anyone know of a good how-to link?

Thanks!
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