topic what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface? in General Topics

what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface?

stanislavm — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:29:01 GMT

hi all,

can you please explain exact difference between the VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface. i've read the forum and saw some docs but i'm still confused with it.

Re: what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface?

mharding — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:27:54 GMT

The L3 subinterface is for router-on-a-stick/trunking configurations. You could use one switch with three different VLANs and trunk them all back to one interface using an ethernet cable. The alternative would be to buy three switches and use three different interfaces on your firewall. It's cost savings/easy configuration/less cabling.

I haven't done anything with a PAN devices in L2 yet. I think you can group interfaces together that way.

Re: what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface?

stanislavm — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:39:25 GMT

i knew it!

the Q is still open. is VLAN-interface analog to SVI interface in cisco catalysts or not? so i can point two or more phisical ports (L2 type) to ONE vlan and make VLAN-interface for routing. am i right?

Re: what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface?

stanislavm — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:16:18 GMT

someone! explain, plz

Re: what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface?

bpappas — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:43:02 GMT

You can do this, BUT we do not recommend it for most environments.

Debugging traffic flows is more involved when you set up multiple L2 interfaces and use VLAN interfaces.

Let's take a look at the two scenarios:

scenario 1:

L3 interface with multiple 802.1q tagged subinterfaces

sessions on the firewall show up with the subinterfaces as ingress and egress (via the show session info command or via the details on the web UI).

scenario 2:

L2 interfaces and VLAN interfaces

sessions on firewall show up with the L2 interfaces as the ingress and egress interface. VLAN interfaces do not show up as ingress or egress interface.

In scenario 1 when you want to verify a traffic flow you check the details on a session to validate that the ingress and egress interfaces are correct.

In scenario 2 you must use the debug commands to debug traffic flow. Using the debug commands is a non-trivial activity and if done improperly can cause resource exhaustion on the dataplane.

Re: what's the difference between VLAN-interface and L3-subinterface?

stanislavm — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:55:58 GMT

many thks for clear answer.