Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Help for vlan configuration

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Routing and Multi WAN
    19 Posts 3 Posters 8.2k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • jimpJ
      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
      last edited by

      When you use VLAN interfaces on an interface such as rl0, it is important that you also not assign the parent (rl0) as another interface.

      in your scenario, your WAN is whichever interface that may be (rl1?)

      LAN would be vlan0 (vlan id 1), and OPT1 would be vlan1 (vlan id 44)

      The ports pfSense plugs into should be a trunk port: set the default vlan for that port to "no" and tag every VLAN you want to use (1 and 44 in your case).

      If you had a default vlan of 1, and vlan 1 tagged, your rl0 and vlan0 interfaces would have been on the same network and that can cause all kinds of not-fun issues.

      Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

      Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

      Do not Chat/PM for help!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • F
        fluca1978
        last edited by

        If I got it right, the problem could be with the PVID 1, the default in my switches. So I created two VLANs on the switch, the PVID=4 for the 192.168.4.0 network and the PVID=44 for the 192.168.44.0 network. Then I plugged the pfsense cable of the rl0 interface, configured it to have the 192.168.4.6 address (is this right?) and the VLAN4 = 192.168.4.7 and VLAN44 = 192.168.44.7. Then I configured the switch port, trying the following combinations:

        
        VLAN 1 (default) | VLAN 4 (192.168.4.7) | VLAN 44 (192.168.44.7) | Result 
        Excluded (E)       | Tagged T                      | Tagged T                         | None of the VLAN or LAN address was working
        Exluded (E)         | Tagged                        | Untagged                        | Lan address reachable, none of the VLANs was reachable
        Tagged               | Tagged                        | Tagged                             | None reachable (and switch no more reachable too!)
        
        

        Then I replaced the second configuration (i.e., PVID=44 untagged) and tried to ping the pfsense virtual interface from the switch itself. The switch can ping the LAN address (192.168.4.6) but none of the vlan addresses.
        This lead me to think there is a problem in the switch configuration, right?
        Am I missing something here?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • jimpJ
          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
          last edited by

          It should be as I described before:

          rl0 is not assigned anywhere. After you set VLANs on it, forget it exists.
          Interfaces > Assign, VLAN tab: setup vlans for vlan id 4, and vlan id 44 (these will show up as vlan0 and vlan1 respectively)
          Under Interfaces > (assign)
          LAN is vlan0
          OPT1 is vlan1

          On your switch set VLAN 1 to be excluded, or if you have a choice, just choose not to have a default. Then set tagged for 4 and 44. There should be no VLANs on the port plugged into pfsense that are untagged; they should all be tagged.

          That should work, but I haven't used HP switches much. I have a couple sitting next to me I haven't had a chance to get into yet.

          Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

          Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

          Do not Chat/PM for help!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • F
            fluca1978
            last edited by

            Ok, but how can I enter the web configurator if I don't assign an address to the lan interface (rl0)?
            From the console, pfsense asks me to assign at least the wan and lan interfaces, so in this case I should not give a lan assignement?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • jimpJ
              jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
              last edited by

              Because vlan0 is the LAN interface, and that is where your .4.6 IP will go.

              When asked for LAN assignment, give it vlan0 (which should be in the list after creating the VLANs)

              Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

              Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

              Do not Chat/PM for help!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • F
                fluca1978
                last edited by

                No way, I did what you explained but when I exclude the PVID=1 and tag the PVID={4,44} into the switch the pfsense machine becomes unreachable.
                I suspect it's something wrong with the switch configuration at this point…

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • jimpJ
                  jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                  last edited by

                  Where are you trying to reach the pfSense box from?

                  You should be using a PC plugged into a port with VLAN 4 set untagged (and no other VLANs)

                  Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                  Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                  Do not Chat/PM for help!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • jimpJ
                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                    last edited by

                    I just configured one of my HP switches with some VLANs and got it to work on an ALIX with no issues.

                    Here's what my config from the HP looks like right now:

                    vlan 1 
                       name "DEFAULT_VLAN" 
                       untagged 13-26 
                       no untagged 1-12 
                       ip address dhcp-bootp 
                       exit 
                    vlan 10 
                       name "Main" 
                       untagged 2-5 
                       tagged 1 
                       ip address 192.168.20.246 255.255.255.0 
                       exit 
                    

                    I then plugged my ALIX into port 1, setup a VLAN interface tagged as 10, assigned that vlan0 interface as LAN, then plugged a PC in port 3 – it all worked. I did have to reboot the ALIX after creating the VLANs but that is a common issue when dealing with VLANs; Sometimes you have to reboot the router after setting them up.

                    Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                    Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                    Do not Chat/PM for help!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • F
                      fluca1978
                      last edited by

                      Just in case I miss something, the web configurator of my switch appears as in the attached pictures. Please note that the pfsense machine is connected to the port 4. Now, if my configuration is ok, then I have to try it on another switch.

                      switch1.png
                      switch1.png_thumb
                      switch2.png
                      switch2.png_thumb
                      switch3.png
                      switch3.png_thumb
                      switch4.png
                      switch4.png_thumb

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GruensFroeschliG
                        GruensFroeschli
                        last edited by

                        Is that correct, that VLAN 4 has no members except the trunk to the pfSense?
                        How are the PVIDs configured now? (screenshot?)

                        The screenshots i posted here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,14918.msg78736.html#msg78736
                        Are for a netgear switch, but you should be able to see the basics out of them and apply to your case.

                        We do what we must, because we can.

                        Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • F
                          fluca1978
                          last edited by

                          Thanks for the suggestion, in fact I'm not sure which port must be tagged. The problem is that my switch allows a single untagged vlan on a port, and all the others must be tagged. In you example you have tagged only the pfsense port, while in my switch this is not possible since also the other vlans must be tagged.
                          So, what I'm going to try is to tag all the ports in all the vlans and see if it works.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • jimpJ
                            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                            last edited by

                            fluca - that is not what you want to do.

                            You do not want tagging on client ports. You only want a single VLAN for them. And for pfSense, you do NOT want an untagged vlan, only tagged.

                            So it should be like so:

                            pfSense port: Tagged 4 and 44
                            VLAN 4 clients: Untagged 4
                            VLAN 44 clients: Untagged 44

                            They do not need untagged access to multiple VLANs, and that is impossible on any managed switch. A port can only have one default VLAN.

                            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                            Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                            Do not Chat/PM for help!

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • F
                              fluca1978
                              last edited by

                              No way!
                              This is what I've done:

                              1. created the VLAN 4 and 44 on the switch;
                              2. configured the switch port 4 (the one pfsense is connected to) to be Excluded from VLAN1 (default), Tagged 4 and Tagged 44;
                              3. configured the port 20 of the switch (the one I'm connected with my laptop) to be Tagged 4 and Excluded from VLAN1 and VLAN44;
                              4. created the VLANs on the pfsense box
                              5. assigned the LAN interface on the VLAN4;
                              6. rebooted the pfsense machine and checked the status of the interfaces (VLAN addresses).

                              From my laptop I cannot see the pfsense box and the last cannot see any piece of the network (this could be ok since only ports 4 and 20 are tagged for the VLAN4), even my laptop.

                              Any suggestion?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • GruensFroeschliG
                                GruensFroeschli
                                last edited by

                                @fluca1978:

                                No way!
                                This is what I've done:

                                1. created the VLAN 4 and 44 on the switch;
                                2. configured the switch port 4 (the one pfsense is connected to) to be Excluded from VLAN1 (default), Tagged 4 and Tagged 44;
                                3. configured the port 20 of the switch (the one I'm connected with my laptop) to be Tagged 4 and Excluded from VLAN1 and VLAN44;
                                4. created the VLANs on the pfsense box
                                5. assigned the LAN interface on the VLAN4;
                                6. rebooted the pfsense machine and checked the status of the interfaces (VLAN addresses).

                                From my laptop I cannot see the pfsense box and the last cannot see any piece of the network (this could be ok since only ports 4 and 20 are tagged for the VLAN4), even my laptop.

                                Any suggestion?

                                Point 3 is wrong.
                                Port 20 with the laptop connected has to be UNTAGGED.

                                We do what we must, because we can.

                                Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • F
                                  fluca1978
                                  last edited by

                                  @GruensFroeschli:

                                  Point 3 is wrong.
                                  Port 20 with the laptop connected has to be UNTAGGED.

                                  Sorry, I've miswritten: port 20 is Untagged (see screenshots).

                                  Now, after a reboot the situation is:
                                  LAN -> nfe0 192.168.4.7 (this is kept up just for let the network working)
                                  VLAN4 -> rl0 192.168.4.6
                                  VLAN44 -> rl0 192.168.44.7

                                  and this is what the pfsense box says:

                                  
                                  # ifconfig
                                  rl0: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                          options=8 <vlan_mtu>ether 00:19:cb:54:c9:11
                                          inet6 fe80::219:cbff:fe54:c911%rl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 
                                          media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                          status: active
                                  nfe0: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                          options=8 <vlan_mtu>ether 00:18:f3:40:38:28
                                          inet 192.168.4.7 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.4.255
                                          inet6 fe80::218:f3ff:fe40:3828%nfe0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3 
                                          media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                          status: active
                                  lo0: flags=8049 <up,loopback,running,multicast>metric 0 mtu 16384
                                          inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 
                                          inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 
                                          inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4 
                                  vlan0: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                          ether 00:19:cb:54:c9:11
                                          inet6 fe80::219:cbff:fe54:c911%vlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8 
                                          inet 192.168.4.6 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.4.255
                                          media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                          status: active
                                          vlan: 4 parent interface: rl0
                                  vlan1: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                          ether 00:19:cb:54:c9:11
                                          inet6 fe80::219:cbff:fe54:c911%vlan1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x9 
                                          inet 192.168.44.7 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.44.255
                                          media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                          status: active
                                          vlan: 44 parent interface: rl0</full-duplex></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast></full-duplex></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast></up,loopback,running,multicast></full-duplex></vlan_mtu></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast></full-duplex></vlan_mtu></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast> 
                                  

                                  but if I try to connect from the LAN to the 192.168.4.6 I can't:

                                  
                                  # route get 192.168.4.6
                                     route to: 192.168.4.6
                                  destination: 192.168.4.0
                                         mask: 255.255.255.0
                                    interface: nfe0
                                        flags: <up,done,cloning>recvpipe  sendpipe  ssthresh  rtt,msec    rttvar  hopcount      mtu     expire
                                         0         0         0         0         0         0      1500      -514 
                                  # ping 192.168.4.6
                                  PING 192.168.4.6 (192.168.4.6): 56 data bytes</up,done,cloning> 
                                  

                                  and the ping hangs. The firewall logs don't show me any blocked packet on such interface, so the packets are not reaching the interface, and in fact, if I try to ping the machine from the switch I see no packet coming back.
                                  I'm starting being depressed! :-[

                                  switch1.png
                                  switch1.png_thumb
                                  switch2.png
                                  switch2.png_thumb
                                  switch3.png
                                  switch3.png_thumb

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • GruensFroeschliG
                                    GruensFroeschli
                                    last edited by

                                    You have the same subnet on LAN and VLAN4.
                                    Unless you're bridging them you have to move one of them to a different subnet.

                                    We do what we must, because we can.

                                    Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • F
                                      fluca1978
                                      last edited by

                                      I've changed a subnet so that now interfaces are as follows:

                                      
                                      vlan0: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                              ether 00:19:cb:54:c9:11
                                              inet6 fe80::219:cbff:fe54:c911%vlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8 
                                              inet 192.168.45.6 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.45.255
                                              media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                              status: active
                                              vlan: 4 parent interface: rl0
                                      vlan1: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                              ether 00:19:cb:54:c9:11
                                              inet6 fe80::219:cbff:fe54:c911%vlan1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x9 
                                              inet 192.168.44.6 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.44.255
                                              media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                              status: active
                                              vlan: 44 parent interface: rl0
                                      nfe0: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
                                              options=8 <vlan_mtu>ether 00:18:f3:40:38:28
                                              inet 192.168.4.7 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.4.255
                                              inet6 fe80::218:f3ff:fe40:3828%nfe0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3 
                                              media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseTX <full-duplex>)
                                              status: active</full-duplex></vlan_mtu></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast></full-duplex></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast></full-duplex></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast> 
                                      

                                      but even with such configuration it is not working (I've rebooted the machine to be sure, the switch configuration is the same as in the previous post). The switch says that the links on port 20 and 4 are active, but nothing more than that.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • F
                                        fluca1978
                                        last edited by

                                        At last I did it!
                                        I used another switch, with the same configuration, so I tagged on each vlan the port to which the pfsense box is connected, and untagged each port belonging to each vlan, and it works. So I guess it could have been not only a misconfiguration problem, but a switch one.

                                        Thanks a lot for the help.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • First post
                                          Last post
                                        Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.