Cisco Bridge-Group Virtual Interface(BVI) Configuration for High Availability

By admin on Oct 26, 2011 with Comments 5

Cisco Bridge-group Virtual Interface (BVI)

A BVI (Bridge Group Virtual Interface) is a routed interface that represents a set of Ethernet interfaces that gets bridged. By using a Bridge group Virtual Interface, you can convert multiple Router Ethernet WAN interfaces as members of a common Ethernet broadcast domain(Like L3 Switch). The figure below shows a sample High Availability LAN configuration. It eliminates the single point of failure in cascading switches topology in which a switch failure would result in total outage of the LAN.

This configuration allows bridging IP between two Ethernet interfaces, and routing IP from bridged interfaces using a Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI). By using Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB) technique, a Cisco router can be turned into a L3 switch. IP addresses can be assigned on Bridge-Group Virtual Interfaces (BVIs), similar to VLAN interfaces as in L3 switches. A BVI is a virtual routed interface that has all network layer attributes, eg: a network address can be assigned to it, able to perform filtering, and does not support bridging. Bridge groups are defined by a unique number and are used for router bridging configuration. Network traffic is bridged between all interfaces that belong to the same bridge group.

Step by Step Bridge Group Virtual Interface (BVI) Configuration

Integrated Routing and Bridging configuration on Router1: Router (config)#int fa0/0

Router (config-if)#bridge-group 1 Router (config-if)#no shut Router(config-if)#exit Router (config)# Router (config-if)#int fa1/0 Router(config-if)#bridge-group 1 Router (config-if)#no shut Router(config-if)#exit Router(config)#

Create Bridge Group Virtual Interface (BVI) and configure the IP and Routing credentials.
Router1(config)#bridge irb Router (config)#int bvi1 Router(config-if)#ip add 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0 Router(config-if)#exit Router(config)#bridge 1 protocol ieee Router (config)#bridge 1 route ip Router(config)# Note: The bridge 1 protocol ieee global configuration command removes bridge-group 1 spanning-disabled interface subcommand on Fa0/0 and Fa1/0 and hence enables STP on bridged interfaces.

Find Bridge Group Virtual Interface (BVI) show command outputs

Router#sh spanning-tree brief

Bridge group 1 Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee Root ID Address Priority 32768

cc01.01e0.0000

This bridge is the root Hello Time 2 sec Max Age 20 sec Forward Delay 15 sec Bridge ID Priority Address 32768

cc01.01e0.0000

Hello Time 2 sec Max Age 20 sec Forward Delay 15 sec Aging Time 300

Interface Name

Designated Port ID Prio Cost Sts Cost Bridge ID Port ID

- - FastEthernet0/0 FastEthernet1/0 Router# 128.2 128.3 128 128 19 FWD 19 FWD 0 32768 cc01.01e0.0000 128.2 0 32768 cc01.01e0.0000 128.3

Router#sh bridge group Bridge Group 1 is running the IEEE compatible Spanning Tree protocol Port 2 (FastEthernet0/0) of bridge group 1 is forwarding Port 3 (FastEthernet1/0) of bridge group 1 is forwarding Router#

show interfaces [interface] irb This command displays the protocols that can be routed or bridged for the specified interface, as follows: Router#show interface e0 irb Ethernet0 Routed protocols on Ethernet0: ip Bridged protocols on Ethernet0: ip ipx

IP protocol is routed as well as bridged. Software MAC address filter on Ethernet0 Hash Len Address 000: 0 ffff.ffff.ffff Matches Act 0 Type

RCV Physical broadcast 0 0 0 157 0 0 RCV DEC spanning tree RCV Interface MAC address RCV Bridge-group Virtual Interface RCV CDP RCV IEEE spanning tree RCV IBM spanning tree

0x2A: 0 0900.2b01.0001 0x9E: 0 0000.0c3a.5092 0x9E: 1 0000.0c3a.5092 0xC0: 0 0100.0ccc.cccc 0xC2: 0 0180.c200.0000 0xC2: 1 0180.c200.0000 Router#