VLAN Bridge Interfaces - Makes Sense?

Hunduster

New Member
May 13, 2023
25
5
3
Düsseldorf, Germany
Hello everyone,

I am completely new to Proxmox VE and come professionally from VMware vSphere.

I have now set up a Proxmox VE in my home lab and would like to virtualize my previous systems such as Raspi etc..

I have a few VLANs at home and have watched a few YouTube videos on this. Without exception, everyone uses a network interface for this and checks the “VLAN aware” box and then assigns the VLAN ID per VM.

I thought that it should be more elegant and similar to VMware, so that I can always select a network interface with the corresponding stored VLAN for the VMs without always having to know and set the ID.

So I have now created all my VLANs as Linux VLANs in the host configuration, referenced them to my physical interface and then created a bridge for the corresponding Linux VLAN, which in turn references the Linux VLAN. Lo and behold: it works.

1730124430456.png

My question to you now is whether I have any disadvantage or the like as a result. Be it security or performance. I was surprised that nobody seems to do it the way I do. Everyone in my circle of friends was also surprised at my method, even though the idea is popular.
 
For my setup, I assign single ports ethX.Y to traditional bridges rather than use vlan aware bridges or OVS. Like you, I prefer it as it seems more explicit, e.g. in the web UI.
AIUI the argument used to go that vlan aware bridges were more convenient as you reduced the need for new bridges and therefore host reboots. But, with ifupdown2, a reboot's no longer necessary. I don't think one approach or other brings any advantages with respect to security or performance.
 
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My config would seem to differ from yours in that I did not define vlans directly in the web UI. I just entered the ethx.y under bridge ports when creating a bridge. They appear in /etc/network/interfaces as

Code:
auto vmbr1
iface vmbr1 inet manual
    bridge-ports eth0.10
    bridge-stp off
    bridge-fd 0
 

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