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VLANs

The VLAN configuration module implements VLANs and VLAN-related interfaces including:

  • Access VLANs

  • VLAN trunks, including configurable native VLAN

  • VLAN interfaces (integrated routing and bridging)

  • Bridging-only and IRB VLANs

  • Routed subinterfaces

Platform Support

VLANs are supported on these platforms:

Operating system Access
VLANs		 VLAN
interfaces		 Routed
subinterfaces		 Trunk
ports		 Native
VLAN
Arista EOS ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Aruba AOS-CX ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Cisco IOSv ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Cisco CSR 1000v ✅ ✅ ❌❗ ✅ ✅
Cisco Nexus OS ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Cumulus Linux ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Dell OS10 ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
FRR ❗ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Juniper vMX ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Juniper vPTX ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Juniper vSRX 3.0 ❌ ❌ ✅ ❌ ❌
Mikrotik RouterOS 6 ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Mikrotik RouterOS 7 ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Nokia SR Linux ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Nokia SR OS ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
VyOS ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

VLAN Connectivity Model

The VLAN configuration module assumes you’re creating a sane design in which:

  • VLAN numbers are globally unique (you’re not reusing 802.1q values)

  • Every VLAN is contiguous and might span multiple physical links (please note that VLANs bridged across VXLAN or MPLS are still contiguous)

  • Every VLAN uses a unique IP subnet across all physical links where it’s used.

  • On access links, all VLAN-capable devices connected to a link use the same access VLAN.

  • On trunk links, all VLAN-capable devices using native VLAN use the same native VLAN.

It might be possible to build topologies that deviate from these rules, but don’t be surprised when the results look weird.

Deployment Recommendations

The VLAN module tries to support many different platform-specific VLAN configuration paradigms, and the resulting maze of various bits and pieces might frustrate the unwary. Following these guidelines might help you avoid the frustration:

  • Use route VLANs only in a router-on-a-stick or multi-hop VRF Lite designs.

  • While it’s possible to mix route and irb VLANs on the same device, the results are not always intuitive. Don’t do that – a device should be a pure router (terminating route VLANs) or a layer-3 switch (forwarding within and between bridge or irb VLANs) but not both.

  • Do not use mode: route on access VLANs. Use native IP connectivity.

  • Avoid mode: route on native VLANs. Some devices might not like that approach.

  • Don’t use link attributes to modify VLANs in a VLAN trunk. Use VLAN attributes.

  • Never combine multiple forwarding modes of a single VLAN within a single node. Using route VLAN mode on a router-on-a-stick and bridge/irb VLAN mode on attached switch is perfectly fine.

  • You REALLY SHOULD NOT use VLANs on links connecting a node back to itself1. Routed VLANs might work2, any other VLAN setup on such a link will result in a miserable failure.

Module Parameters

The following default parameters are used to when assigning VLAN IDs:

  • vlan.start_vlan_id: Specifies the first auto-assigned VLAN ID (default: 1000).

To change these defaults, set defaults.vlan.value parameter(s) in lab topology.

VLAN Definition

VLANs are defined in a global- or node-specific vlans dictionary, allowing you to create network-wide VLANs or local VLANs.

Global- and node VLAN parameters are merged to get final VLAN data for individual nodes, allowing you to override global VLAN parameters on individual nodes.

Warning

Use unique VLAN names when defining node-specific VLANs. There’s a subtle interaction between global- and node-specific VLAN definitions.

The keys of the vlans dictionary are VLAN names, the values are VLAN definitions. A VLAN definition could be empty or a dictionary with one or more of these attributes:

  • id – 802.1q VLAN tag

  • vni – VXLAN VNI (managed by VXLAN configuration module)

  • vrf – the VRF VLAN belongs to

  • mode – default VLAN forwarding mode: route, bridge or irb.

  • prefix – IP prefix assigned to the VLAN. The value of the prefix could be an IPv4 prefix or a dictionary with ipv4 and ipv6 keys.

  • pool – addressing pool used to assign IPv4/IPv6 prefixes to the VLAN. VLAN prefixes are allocated from addressing pools before interface address assignments.

  • links – VLAN access links within the VLAN

  • A VLAN definition can also contain other valid link- or interface-level parameters (including link role, addressing pool, VRF name, OSPF cost…).

VLAN definitions lacking id attribute get default VLAN ID assigned during the topology transformation process.

Default VLAN Values

VLAN definitions without id attribute will get a VLAN ID assigned automatically. The first auto-assigned VLAN ID is specified in the vlan.start_id global attribute; ID assignment process skips IDs assigned to existing VLANs.

VLAN Forwarding Modes

VLANs with mode set to bridge or irb are configured as VLAN/SVI interfaces or bridge groups (BVI interfaces or Linux bridge) – VLAN access or trunk interfaces using the same VLAN are bridged.

VLANs with mode set to route are configured as routed subinterfaces under the VLAN trunk interface. Use this mode primarily for designs using VLAN trunks to implement router-on-a-stick or multi-hop VRF. Access VLAN interfaces with mode set to route are identical to non-VLAN interfaces.

You can set VLAN forwarding mode within individual links or interfaces with vlan.mode attribute, within a node or global vlans definition, or with vlan.mode node- or global parameter.

The precedence of various vlan.mode parameters (from highest to lowest) is as follows:

  • Interface vlan.mode, potentially inherited from parent interface vlan.mode or from parent interface vlan.trunk dictionary.

  • Link vlan.mode, potentially inherited from parent link vlan.trunk dictionary

  • mode set in node vlans definition

  • Node vlan.mode setting3

  • mode set in global vlans definition

  • Global vlan.mode setting

The default forwarding mode is irb.

Create VLAN Interfaces and Routed Subinterfaces

VLAN interfaces and subinterfaces are created on-demand based on these rules:

  • A VLAN/SVI/BVI interface is created for every VLAN with mode set to bridge or irb present on a node’s physical interface.

  • A VLAN/SVI/BVI interface is also created for every VLAN with mode set to irb present in node’s vlans dictionary4.

  • VLAN subinterfaces are created on VLAN trunks on platforms behaving more like routers than switches (example: Cisco IOS).

  • A routed VLAN subinterface is created on every interface that has a VLAN with mode set to route.

  • Routed VLAN subinterfaces are not created for access VLAN interfaces (VLAN specified in vlan.access attribute) when the VLAN mode is set to route. There is no difference between routed access VLAN interface and an interface without VLAN configuration.

The VLAN mode can be set in global- or node vlans dictionary or with the vlan.mode interface/link attribute.

VLAN Interface Parameters

You can change VLAN interface5 parameters within the node vlans dictionary. For example, use the following definitions to set the OSPF cost for the red VLAN interface on node s1:

vlans:
  red:

nodes:
  s1:
    module: [ ospf,vlan ]
    vlans:
      red:
        ospf.cost: 10

links:
- s1:
    vlan.access: red
  ...

You can also set interface parameters for every interface connected to a VLAN within global VLAN definition. For example, you could set the OSPF cost for all interfaces connected to the red VLAN:

vlans:
  red:
    ospf.cost: 10

nodes:
  s1:
    module: [ ospf,vlan ]

links:
- s1:
    vlan.access: red
  ...

Finally, you can set the parameters of an individual routed VLAN subinterface within the vlan.trunk link- or interface- dictionary.

Warning

Don’t try to set VLAN interface parameters on access or trunk links; you might get unexpected results.

Modifying Attributes of VLANs in a VLAN Trunk

Use a list of VLANs in a vlan.trunk attribute when you don’t want to change individual VLAN attributes on a link/interface level. Use a vlan.trunk dictionary when you want to set additional parameters for the virtual links created for individual VLAN in the trunk.

You could use this functionality to set VLAN forwarding mode (vlan.mode) on individual VLANs in a trunk6, or to set parameters for a routed VLAN subinterface.

Warning

Use interface- or link attributes within the ‌trunk dictionary only on routed VLAN subinterfaces. Attributes for VLAN/SVI interfaces should be set within global or node-level ‌vlans definition.

For example, to set OSPF cost for a routed subinterface for VLAN red without changing the OSPF cost for blue or green VLAN, use this link definition:

links:
- r1:
    vlan.trunk:
      red:
        vlan.mode: route
        ospf.cost: 10
  s1:
  vlan.trunk: [ red, green, blue ]

VLAN Addressing

IPv4 and/or IPv6 prefixes are automatically assigned to VLAN-enabled links. A VLAN trunk is decomposed into a number of virtual links (one per VLAN); the VLAN addressing rules are then applied to those virtual links.

A VLAN is treated like a multi-access link with an IPv4/IPv6 prefix. It can have a static prefix specified with the prefix VLAN attribute, or get a prefix allocated from the address pool specified with the pool VLAN attribute (default: lan pool).

When at least one node attached to a VLAN-enabled link uses VLAN forwarding mode irb or bridge for that VLAN, all parts of that VLAN get the VLAN-wide prefix:

  • VLAN prefix is copied into the link (or virtual link) prefix.

  • All nodes connected to a VLAN get their IP addresses from the VLAN prefix. Node addresses within a VLAN prefix are calculated with the algorithm used to calculate IP addresses on multi-access links.

  • Whenever a VLAN access interface is attached to a link, the VLAN prefix is used to assign IP addresses to all nodes on that link.

The above rule does not apply to routed access interfaces or virtual links. A routed VLAN link is a link on which all connected nodes that use vlan configuration module use forwarding mode route for that VLAN.

A unique prefix is assigned to every routed VLAN link (access interface or trunk link VLAN member). The prefix cannot be specified with the VLAN prefix attribute; use pool VLAN attribute to specify the address pool to be used for the virtual link. You can also specify the link prefix in the prefix attribute of an individual VLAN trunk member.

Note

If you want to use unnumbered VLAN member links, set VLAN pool to unnumbered.

Physical Interface and VLAN Interface Addressing

The following rules are used to assign VLAN IPv4/IPv6 addresses to node interfaces:

  • When a node is attached to a VLAN-enabled link, but does not have a vlan interface attribute, the VLAN IP address is assigned to physical interface.

  • When the VLAN forwarding mode is set to irb, the node VLAN IP address is assigned to a VLAN interface.

  • When the VLAN forwarding mode of a VLAN in a VLAN trunk is set to route, the node VLAN IP address is assigned to the routed subinterface (see also Create VLAN Interfaces and Routed Subinterfaces).

  • No IP address is assigned to the VLAN interface when the VLAN forwarding mode is set to bridge.

  • No IP address is assigned to the physical interface that has an access or native VLAN with mode set to bridge or irb. You can try to force an IP address assignment to such an interface with ipv4 or ipv6 interface attribute and become responsible for the results of your actions.

  • Interfaces with access or native VLAN that has mode set to route are treated like regular interfaces and get IP addresses. These interfaces will be configured as regular layer-3 interfaces without access or native VLAN7.

  • IP prefixes are not assigned to the physical interfaces with VLAN trunks. If you want to assign IP addresses to default native VLAN (1), use pool or prefix link attribute.

Known Caveats

If we document them, they’re not bugs, right?

  • Devices connected to a single-node VLAN will not have VLAN-wide list of neighbors on the interface connected to that node. EBGP sessions that should be configured over that VLAN might be missing.

1

One of the really bad ideas we had in the past.

2

But don’t expect us to fix bugs you might stumble upon. You’ve been warned ;)

3

Node setting takes precedence over global VLAN setting to allow you to attach a router to a VLAN trunk without setting too many parameters.

4

You can use this functionality to implement VXLAN-to-VXLAN routing in a router-on-a-stick design or asymmetric IRB.

5

VLAN/SVI/BVI interfaces or router VLAN subinterfaces

6

Some platforms do not support a mix of bridged and routed VLANs on a single physical interface.

7

There is no difference between a regular layer-3 interface and an access VLAN interface that does no bridging and only routes IP packets. The proof is left as an exercise for the reader.