[Xorp-hackers] VLANs

[Robert Bays]

Sent this out yesterday from the wrong mail account...

Robert Bays wrote:
> 
> 
> Kristian Larsson wrote:
>>>         %create:  program "vconfig add
>>>         $(ethernet.@) 
>>> $(@)";                                                                                                                                                    
>>
>> This is certainly not an elegant solution.
>> However there is no problem doing this from within
>> the fea. I've provided a very simple code example
>> of adding vlans on a Linux system, it's available
>> at
>> http://www.xorp.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=79&action=view
> 
> While it may not be elegant, it seems to work.  And I would argue is a 
> more pure implementation than creating vlan devices in the fea (from a 
> XORP point of view anyway).  To date, XORP doesn't create system 
> interfaces.  It relies on the operating system to provide them. Enabling 
> the fea to know how to create and configure the wide range of interfaces 
> is probably beyond the scope of the fea, IMHO.  vlans are maybe a 
> borderline example, but also consider a Sangoma or Digium T1/E1 
> interface.  As long as XORP provides a convenient method for using 
> existing system tools to create the interface and set layer 2 parameters 
> before any XRLs are processed, you can add support for many interface 
> types relatively easily.  And that is probably the real goal.  XORP need 
> only know about the layer 3 characteristics of the device in order to 
> utilize it.
> 
> As for vlans under BSD, I think it would be fairly easy to do the same 
> thing Vyatta did under Linux by replacing the 'vconfig' call with 
> something like 'ifconfig $(vif.@) create; ifconfig $(vif.@) vlan 
> $(vif.id) vlandev $(interface.@)'.  Then reference 'interface:($vif.@) 
> vif:$(vif.@)' in all subsequent XRL calls.  To take it one step further, 
> you could probably hide OS specifics and create a mostly generic 
> template by defining a parameter in the template and just referencing it 
> in the program call, much like the tftp/ftp/http mechanism that exists 
> in the templates now.  That parameter could be populated in the template 
> at compile time.
> 
> Cheers,
> Robert
>