Re-creating a switch

[LoZio]

Hi,
I have a bizzarre question. Suppose you have a 8 port switch, on which you can configure 6 access ports connected to 6 different VLANs, and the 2 remaining port configured to trunk all of the VLANs present on the access ports to another switch. This is a tipical config to drive 6 VLAN onto a single cable to another switch. This is pretty simple to achieve.

I *need* to achieve the same result using a FreeBSD host with 8 interface adapters. I need to have 6 of them connected to several segments, ad 2 ports trunking all the VLANs out.
And it must be a layer2 work, it must behave the same as a switch, no routing involved.
I really need that: to replace a 40 buck switch with a server.
Any idea about the way to do it? I was thinking about vlan interfaces and bridging, but I'm just a little bit confused...
Thanks

 

[brd@]

Take a look at the vlan() page for information using vlans and the Link Aggregation section of The Handbook. Then you should be able to bridge the 4 interfaces into the lagg() interface.

 

[PhenomII]

Greetings,
You might also want to have a look at FreeNAS, m0n0wall, or some of the other "embedded" FreeBSD versions for some clues on how you can accomplish final goal. In fact, you might even be able to use one of them right out of the box.

HTH
Best wishes.