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Manual Chapter : Create BIG-IP objects for Layer 2 transparency

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BIG-IP LTM

  • 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0
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To configure the BIG-IP® system as an inline device operating in Layer 2 transparency mode, you first need to create a virtual wire configuration object. Creating a virtual wire object causes the BIG-IP system to automatically perform these actions:

  • Create trunks for accepting all VLAN traffic, with Link Aggregation Protocol (LACP) enabled.
  • Set the trunk members (interfaces) to virtual wire mode.
  • Create two VLANs with tag 4096 that allow all Layer 2 ingress traffic.
  • Create a VLAN group to logically connect the VLANs.
  1. On the Main tab, click Network > Virtual Wire .
    This object appears on certain BIG-IP platforms only.
    The Virtual Wire screen opens.
  2. Click Create.
  3. In the Name field, type a name for the virtual wire object.
  4. On the right side of the screen, click the double-arrow symbol to expand the Shared Objects panel.
  5. Click within the Trunks heading area.
    This displays a list of existing trunks, and displays the + symbol for creating a trunk.
  6. Click the + symbol.
  7. In the Name field, type a name for the trunk, such as trunk_external or trunk_internal.
  8. In the Interfaces list, select the check boxes for the interfaces that you want to include in the trunk.
  9. From the LACP list, select Enabled.
    This enables the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) to monitor link availability within the trunk.
  10. Click Commit.
    If you do not see the Commit button, try using a different browser.
    This creates the trunk that you can specify as an interface when you complete the creation of the virtual wire object.
  11. Repeat steps 6 through 10 to create a second trunk.
  12. In the Member 1 column, from the Interfaces/Trunks list, select a trunk name, such as trunk_external.
  13. In the Member 2 column, from the Interfaces/Trunks list, select another trunk name, such as trunk_internal.
  14. In the VLAN Traffic Management Configuration column, for the Define VLANs list, use the default value of No.
  15. Click Done Editing.
  16. Click Commit Changes to System.
After you perform this task, the BIG-IP system contains a virtual wire object, two trunks, two VLANs, and a VLAN group.

Naming conventions for virtual wire-related objects

For virtual wire-related configuration objects, the BIG-IP system manages object naming in specific ways. See the following table for details.

Object type System-named? Naming convention
Virtual wire No User-defined
Trunk No User-defined
VLAN Yes virtual-wire-name_vlan_4096_member_number_xx
VLAN group Yes Same name as the virtual wire object
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